admire
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to feel or express admiration.
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Dialect. to take pleasure; like or desire.
I would admire to go.
idioms
verb
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to regard with esteem, respect, approval, or pleased surprise
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archaic to wonder at
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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admirernoun
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quasi-admireverb
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preadmireverb (used with object)
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admiringadjective
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unadmiredadjective
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admiringlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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admiresimple
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admiressimple
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have admiredperfect
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has admiredperfect
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am admiringprogressive
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are admiringprogressive
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is admiringprogressive
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have been admiringperfect progressive
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has been admiringperfect progressive
Past
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admiredsimple
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had admiredperfect
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was admiringprogressive
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were admiringprogressive
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had been admiringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of admire
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin admīrārī, equivalent to ad- ad- + mīrārī (in Medieval Latin mīrāre ) “to wonder at, admire”
Explanation
If you hold someone in high esteem or look up to someone, you admire that person. If you ask four-year-olds who they most admire, they are likely to list their mom, dad, and grandparents — or superheroes and comic book characters. The verb admire also means to look at with wonder and pleasure. She stood on the balcony of her hotel for a long time, simply to admire the view of the ocean and the surf as it crashed against the rocks below. I admire the way she volunteers to help at the school and with other charities because she is willing to give her time to good causes.
Vocabulary lists containing admire
"Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." and "I Have a Dream"
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"A Natural Balance" and "In My Dreams"
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Lyrics from "American Pie" by Don McLean
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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.
See Examples For:
“I’ve come to admire artists who are willing to go in deep inside their most personal thoughts for the sake of helping the listener understand their own lives,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
“Those are timeless qualities I admire, and they are exactly what U.S. Soccer needed at this moment.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Reasonable lawyers can admire that analysis without agreeing with where it ends.
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2026
She warned that even when washed ashore and appearing dead, their stinging cells can remain active and still cause discomfort and urged people to admire them from a distance.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
We would walk through its tree-lined campus, peek into college classrooms, and admire its magnificent chapel with its vaulted ceiling, grand columns, and multicolored stained glass.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
Macron invited him to a formal dinner to be held at the one place Trump admires most in the world, other than Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower: the Palace of Versailles.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
Dressed in form-fitting suits with eye-catching colors, de la Espriella cuts the figure of one of the politicians he most openly admires: Nayib Bukele.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Quiñones commented, “Journalism is stronger because of your voice, your courage and your story-telling, Cecilia,” and Ramos wrote in Spanish that he respects and admires her.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
Buffett admires him, and Cook could bring stature and tech savvy to a company that isn’t a leader in employing technology.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
He admires her, even resents her a little, for having moved to another country and made a separate life.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
“I’ve admired Grupo Niche for years,” Peluso said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
"His leadership, vision and commitment to the welfare of the Qatari people were widely admired, both within Qatar and around the world," they added.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
In his home village in Punjab, Bishnoi is admired rather than reviled for many of the crimes attributed to him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Inside Dette Flies, a 98-year-old fishing shop, I admired cases filled with flies that sounded like secret-service code names: Green Ghost, Mickey Finn, Pink Lady.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
If I told him how deeply I had admired Mircea, his vision of me would be tarnished forever.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
And social media brimmed with foreign fans admiring the US way of life.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
“It’s not going to get much better than that,” Antinone said, admiring the water’s crystal appearance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
My colleague Alex Kirshner wrote about @FreddyLA7, a German X user visiting the U.S. for the tournament whose admiring, travelogue-style posts about Taco Bell, state parks, and other Americana are going viral.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
"She used to play for fun while admiring and trying to copy Neymar's dribbles."
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
“When’d they put this here?” he remarked, admiring the three-story structure with gracefully arched windows and a strongly detailed roofline.
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
