as in improvisations
something that is performed, made, or done without preparation
you would never suspect that that stirring speech was an ad-lib
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in improvises
to perform, make, or do without preparation
had to ad-lib constructing a piñata because she'd never actually seen it being done
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of ad-libs
Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 24 Oct. 2025
Urban often ad-libs comments when performing the song live.
—Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 2 Oct. 2025
Between the ad-libs to start the cut and rapping over drill 808s mixed with Jersey club, Cardi appears to be taking a page out of the Ice Spice playbook.
—Michael Saponara, Billboard, 24 Sep. 2025
Verb
Recently, Chance The Rapper told DJ Bootleg Kev about Mac playing a vital role in one of his most famous ad-libs, noting that the moment occurred during an LA recording session with Chuck Inglish.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 24 Oct. 2025
Urban often ad-libs comments when performing the song live.
—Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 2 Oct. 2025
Between the ad-libs to start the cut and rapping over drill 808s mixed with Jersey club, Cardi appears to be taking a page out of the Ice Spice playbook.
—Michael Saponara, Billboard, 24 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ad-libs
Noun
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Full of creative improvisations and whirring beats, her first album since 2017’s Halo is both another forward step in her career and a great entry point for anyone who’s never listened to Molina.—
Nina Corcoran,
Pitchfork,
7 Nov. 2025
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Her education was a synthesis of Classical and Romantic, with the Scottish grounding in logic, reason and intellectual persuasion given a fillip by the improvisations of Miss Christina Kay.—
Frances Wilson
September 23,
Literary Hub,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Marcus du Sautoy believes that the creative impulses underlying mathematics and art are so similar that any artist working in any form improvises mathematically even when the artist doesn’t know it.—
Rebecca Coffey,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
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At one point, Paul improvises a blowtorch and singes Carey’s face, leaving his peepers hairless.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
22 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Odysseus, the Ithacan warrior who is as celebrated for craftiness as Achilles is for brute strength, devises a clever ruse in which the Greeks place a giant wooden horse outside Troy’s walls and pretend to sail away.—
Elizabeth D. Samet,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Oct. 2025
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Anime giant Crunchyroll has partnered with Luminopia, a digital health company that devises new treatments for significant neuro-visual disorders, for a new VR treatment for kids with lazy eye (amblyopia).—
Tony Maglio,
HollywoodReporter,
28 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Lockjaw, obsessed with everything about Perfidia, concocts a reason to send authorities into the town where Bob and Willa are living.—
Bill Goodykoontz,
AZCentral.com,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Although the stage musical only shows Dorothy’s shadow from the other side of a scrim, her inclusion in the story is pivotal for Elphaba, who fakes her death after the Wizard of Oz protagonist throws a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West.—
Glenn Garner,
Deadline,
29 Oct. 2025
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On fourth-and-2 from 48-yard line, Nix fakes pitch to Dobbins and Sutton is open from moment left line of scrimmage because of formation.—
Joe Nguyen,
Denver Post,
21 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ad-libs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ad-libs. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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