adore

American  

[uh-dawr, uh-dohr] / əˈdɔr, əˈdoʊr /

verb (used with object)

• adores,
  present (3rd person singular)
• adored,
  past participle,  past
• adoring
  present participle

1. to regard with the utmost esteem, love, and respect; honor.

   Synonyms:

   venerate, revere, reverence, idolize

   Antonyms:

   abhor

2. to pay divine honor to; worship.

   to adore God.

3. to like or admire very much.

   I simply adore the way your hair is done!

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verb (used without object)

• adores,
  present (3rd person singular)
• adored,
  past participle,  past
• adoring
  present participle

1. to worship.

adore British  

/ əˈdɔː /

verb

1. (tr) to love intensely or deeply

2. to worship (a god) with religious rites

3. informal (tr) to like very much

   I adore chocolate

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• adorer
  noun
• adoring
  adjective
• unadored
  adjective
• unadoring
  adjective
• adoringly
  adverb
• unadoringly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• adoring
  present
• adored
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• adore
  simple
• adores
  simple
• have adored
  perfect
• has adored
  perfect
• am adoring
  progressive
• are adoring
  progressive
• is adoring
  progressive
• have been adoring
  perfect progressive
• has been adoring
  perfect progressive

Past

• adored
  simple
• had adored
  perfect
• was adoring
  progressive
• were adoring
  progressive
• had been adoring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will adore
  simple
• will have adored
  perfect
• will be adoring
  progressive
• will have been adoring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of adore

First recorded in 1275–1325; from Latin adōrāre “to speak to, pray, worship,” from ad- ad- + ōrāre “to beg, plead, speak” ( see oration); replacing Middle English aour(i)e, from Old French aourer, from Latin

Explanation

Someone you adore gets put on a pedestal. Considering your fear of germs, when you told me that you had shared a toothbrush — I knew you must adore her! Adore comes from the Latin word adorare, meaning “to worship.” So when you adore someone, it's more than just a crush. However, like many words of strong emotion, adore gets used in lighter situations as well. Your aunt tells me you just adore the miniature fruitcakes she sends you every holiday.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

adore adores adored adoring

"We are best mates. What you see on screen is very much our real life relationship, we adore each other. I can't wait for the world to meet all of them," says Rex.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

“As a full-time solo RV woman I absolutely adore this!” one person wrote.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026

Many people still adore him, for whatever reason.

From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2026

Ahmed: The shows that I really adore and the ones that really inspired me on this journey are ones that are unapologetically specific.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

“We adore Paloma, but we don’t want to give her the evil eye!”

From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar

The 54-year-old fisherman from a small village in Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi, has been a superfan of the Argentine football team since the 1980s and adores superstar Lionel Messi.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

If the best way to hit it big is to make a podcast that someone like Altman adores, then the rest of us are probably in trouble.

From Slate ● Apr. 7, 2026

Mr. Jacobs also adores the look of the taxi dancers—“broken dolls,” he calls them—in Bob Fosse’s movie “Sweet Charity.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026

Martin, who turns 74 on Sunday, reached his milestone with Celtic, a club he adores, so it must have been something special.

From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026

For the first time in his life, Leonardo has a patron who adores him.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

The meals of hot dogs and tinned fruit were revelatory to children used to the flavorings of ginger and kimchi: “This was straight-up American food, wholesome, facile, and inert, and we adored it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

"She always dined out on this story and she always called Paul McCartney Paul McCarty. But she adored The Beatles."

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

“It was dishonest work, and barely paid the bills, but Sterling adored it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

The futile paradox of these so-called live-action adaptations is they require a tsunami of pixels to surround actual human performers with everything audiences adored the first time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Mom never liked playing in the water—she preferred to relax on the balcony while Dad took us kids on adventures—but I adored the rare afternoon when I skipped surfing to spend one-on-one time with Mom.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

Like Grande to her adoring fans, Maddie is Deena’s idol, and Deena measures Maddie’s success by her work benchmarks and public visibility.

From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026

Mboladinga, 49, sometimes called the “grandson of Lumumba” by adoring fans, says he is pleased that he will be bringing Lumumba’s legacy to the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

"It's like a full-circle moment, very meaningful for me," she told the crowd as an adoring Carpenter looked on.

From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026

It is their first trip to Australia since 2018, when they spent two weeks touring the country as well as New Zealand and Pacific islands in a visit that drew adoring throngs of crowds.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

She imagined this was similar—only she was moving a thousand times faster, and the grass blades weren’t adoring fans.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• admire
• cherish
• delight in
• fall for
• idolize
• revere
• worship