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• ado
  ado

  noun

  busy activity or bustle; fuss; bother.
• ADO
  ADO

  abbreviation

  accumulated day off

ado

American  

[uh-doo] / əˈdu /

noun

1. busy activity or bustle; fuss; bother.

   Much more ado has been made over this allegation than the facts warrant.

   Synonyms:

   uproar, turmoil, noise, hubbub, excitement, confusion, commotion, to-do, flurry

   Antonyms:

   tranquility, peace, calm

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idioms

1. without further ado, without additional preamble, preliminaries, or other delay.

   Well, without further ado, let's get down to the details of our master plan.

ADO ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. accumulated day off

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ado ² British  

/ əˈduː /

noun

1. bustling activity; fuss; bother; delay (esp in the phrases without more ado, with much ado )

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Synonym Usage

Ado, to-do, commotion, stir, tumult suggest a great deal of fuss and noise. Ado implies a confused bustle of activity, a considerable emotional upset, and a great deal of talking: Much Ado About Nothing. To-do, now more commonly used, may mean merely excitement and noise and may be pleasant or unpleasant: a great to-do over a movie star. Commotion suggests a noisy confusion and babble: commotion at the scene of an accident. Stir suggests excitement and noise, with a hint of emotional cause: The report was followed by a tremendous stir in the city. Tumult suggests disorder with noise and violence: a tumult as the mob stormed the Bastille.

Etymology

Origin of ado

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English (north) at do, a phrase equivalent to at “to” (from Old Norse, which used at with the infinitive) + do do ¹

Explanation

Someone who makes a lot of ado about things has a tendency to make them more busy or complicated than they need to be. A flurry of activity or a lot of complaining about a little problem are both examples of ado. It's an old fashioned word, dating back to the fourteenth century, when it meant "conflict or trouble." "At do" was a Norse version of the English phrase "to do," which was eventually shortened to ado. The most famous use of the word is probably in the title of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ado ADO

For U.S. shoppers hoping for relief, however, it’s looking like much ado about nothing.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 24, 2025

All right, without further ado, let’s get this episode started.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2025

“We suspect this is much ado about nothing,” he wrote in a note to clients.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024

Inside the park, however, as the March on the DNC rally was underway, it began to feel like it was all much ado about nothing.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2024

Hermione was immediately cleared to continue with Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Potions, and shot off to a first-period Ancient Runes class without further ado.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

Prior to this study, cancer researchers and clinicians had begun to suspect that ADO was important in glioblastoma, where tumors often have to survive in pockets of very low oxygen, Shishikura explains.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 2, 2025

Last month, Dick Advocaat, who is 75, took charge of Dutch second-tier team ADO Den Haag.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2022

Elsewhere in the Netherlands parts of the roof of the stadium of football team ADO Den Haag was ripped off in the Hague and high speed trains to Belgium, France and the UK were cancelled.

From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2022

In its ADO supplement, the ADB maintained its growth forecasts for China at 8.1% this year and 5.5% next year.

From Reuters ● Jul. 20, 2021

The ADO sets up DartConnect, which the PDO has also begun to employ, on up to 70 boards in a tournament, removing some of the scheduling issues and limitations of a local sport.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 26, 2019