adhering (to)

verb

present participle of adhere (to)
1
as in keeping (to)
to give steadfast support to our coach adheres to the belief that we can win this game if we just have a positive attitude

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in obeying
to act according to the commands of adhere to the terms of the deceased's will

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for adhering (to)
  1. standing by
  2. obeying
  3. defending
  4. following
Verb
  • Luckily, waiters are standing by with large jugs of water, ready to refill at the sight of sweat dripping down your forehead.
    — Ali Domrongchai, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 Nov. 2026
  • To make sure that's the case, there's long been a strict firewall between the doctors and nurses trying to save patients in the hospital, and the organ retrieval teams standing by to try to procure their organs.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of standing by
Verb
  • Trump threatened Indiana Republicans for not obeying him with an altered map and ran primary challenges to a number of state senators, beating several.
    — New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 6 Nov. 2026
  • People are riding e-bikes and e-motorcycles, sometimes riding recklessly, traveling at high speeds, or not obeying the rules of the road.
    — Ashley Portillo, CBS News, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of obeying
Verb
  • Crowley made defending Medicaid funding and preserving affordable housing central pillars of his platform.
    — Maayan Silver, NPR, 4 Nov. 2026
  • The Moon’s square to Uranus favors responding to the new situation instead of defending the original promise.
    — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of defending
Verb
  • First, there's Topkapi Palace, built by the Ottomans in the 1460s following the conquest of Constantinople.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Rhoades, convicted and sentenced to death in 1999, had filed numerous appeals over the following decades.
    — Michael McGough, Sacbee.com, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of following
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

adhering
adhering (to)
adhesion
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Adhering (to).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/adhering%20%28to%29. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Old-Timey Vehicles

The Words of the Week - Nov. 6

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All