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Etymology
Origin of adherence
Explanation
Adherence means "sticking to" or "being faithful to," such as your adherence to your diet even when chocolate cake is around, or students' adherence to school rules — they do not use cell phones or music players in class. The noun adherence is related to the verb adhere, meaning “to stick.” If something adheres, it sticks it to something, like a bumper stick that adheres to a car or a person who adheres to a plan, not changing it along the way. Adherence describes this willingness to stick or be faithful, like adherence to child labor laws that means young workers cannot work past a certain time on school nights.
Vocabulary lists containing adherence
This Week in Words: December 9 - 15, 2017
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Lyddie
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Herbert Hoover on "Rugged Individualism" (1928)
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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.
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The next thing I think you start seeing is the court becoming interested in, despite its professed adherence to textualism, reading these statutes with an eyebrow raised.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
First, each company at the frontier of AI development should give employee-like access to independent evaluators, who would verify the company’s adherence to strict safety and testing standards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Russia's Ambassador to Budapest, Evgeny Stanislavov, reacted bitterly to Anita Orbán's intention to continue "the necessary dialogue, based on mutual respect and adherence to the rules".
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Though she showed many classic early childhood indicators — sensitivity to noise, extremely limited food preferences, rigid adherence to routine and difficulties understanding social nuances — no one suggested she was autistic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
“I don’t just wake up like this. It takes good hair products, a vigorous workout, and relentless adherence to my skin-care routine.”
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Whether the Stones and Pebles, that are wash'd by the Brooks, Springs, or other Waters, have any colour'd substance left upon them; and if they have, of what colour, weight, &c. these adherences are?
From Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 Giving some Accompt of the present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious in many considerable parts of the World by Henry Oldenburg
Some of these adherences resembled pouches with holes, pumping the sea, disgorging vapour, and refilling themselves with water.
From The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
First, man must independently investigate reality, for the disagreements and dissensions which afflict and affect humanity primarily proceed from imitations of ancestral beliefs and adherences to hereditary forms of worship.
From The Promulgation of Universal Peace by `Abdu'l-Bahá
The object has been to keep the old family, and the old adherences, and the old acres together.
From Cousin Henry by Anthony Trollope
Like the tree or vine just mention'd, it stands at last in a beauty, power and productiveness of its own, above all others, and of a sort and style uniting all criticisms, proofs and adherences.
From Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
