adore

American  

[uh-dawr, uh-dohr] / əˈdɔr, əˈdoʊr /

verb (used with object)

adored, adoring

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)

adored, adoring

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

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

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” ( oration ); replacing Middle English aour(i)e, from Old French aourer, from Latin

Example Sentences

And these are the dancers that I adored when I was younger,’” Jordan says.

From Los Angeles Times

What they might do, though, is remind him why he became so widely adored — valuable self-knowledge for an artist whose great subject has always been the transformative power of love.

From Los Angeles Times

Salah's statistics deliver the evidence - but so much more lies beneath the numbers for the iconic Anfield figure labelled the 'Egyptian King' by his adoring followers on the Kop.

From BBC

Before I could even open a menu, he’d tell the waiter, “Sauce on the side, she eats like a celebrity,” making me feel adored, not demanding.

From Los Angeles Times

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

Related Words

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