adage
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of adage
1540–50; < French < Latin adagium, equivalent to ad- ad- + ag- (stem of āio I say) + -ium -ium
Explanation
An adage is a saying. Moms and dads love adages such as "early to bed, early to rise" and "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." The noun adage comes from the Latin root aio, meaning "I say." Like a proverb, an adage can be true or not so much. It's a folksy saying that's been passed around for so long that it doesn't even matter if it's true anymore. Adages can be wise and wisecracking, such as this quote from Alice Roosevelt Longworth: "I've always believed in the adage that the secret of eternal youth is arrested development." There's a Book of Proverbs in the Bible, but adages can show up anywhere, even cross-stitched on a pillow.
Vocabulary lists containing adage
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"I think about the adage, 'What gets measured gets managed.' An aspirational goal in mental health would be to combine subjective experience with objective biological testing," said Perez.
From Science Daily • May 4, 2026
There is an old Wall Street adage: “Being early is the same as being wrong.”
From Barron's • May 4, 2026
There’s that adage about the Velvet Underground, how they only sold 10,000 copies of their first album, but every one of the 10,000 people who bought it went out and started their own band.
From Salon • Apr. 28, 2026
“Hardware is hard,” says the old Silicon Valley adage, and in the age of AI, that might be Apple’s biggest advantage.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026
Starkey referred to the adage ‘Hear the other side’, a fundamental principle of natural justice, as ‘hateful’.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
