admire
Americanverb (used with object)
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admires,
present (3rd person singular)
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admired,
past participle, past
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admiring
present participle
verb (used without object)
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admires,
present (3rd person singular)
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admired,
past participle, past
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admiring
present participle
-
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 look at the creatives I admire and you can see they have language in their work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
While attending one of his lectures, she connected with his idea that “before we take from nature, we must honor and admire it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
“I admire that they learned quickly and they didn’t need a gatekeeper,” Kelly says of the prodigies that have taken this year’s box office by storm.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
His work without the ball is another reason Liverpool's recruitment team are understood to admire him.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Gone was the musical cadence I had grown to admire; his words were all ice and tempered steel, his voice as frigid as the Baltic north he hailed from.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Kelly said she admires Swift and Kelce for donating to charity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
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
Plus, Hodin, 37, a freelance writer who chronicled her “groomzilla” experience for Vogue, admires his gold-plated tastes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
The low-budget film stars Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as a man who makes a sinister bargain to win the affections of the woman he admires -- and must bear the consequences.
From Barron's ● May 17, 2026
He admires his frog and puts it on the table next to Mom’s frog so that their little frog feet are touching.
From "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead
"Au Vodka is a brand we've long admired," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
A luscious and melancholy white-soul song that I’d bet Phil Collins admired back in the day — and that Justin Bieber would probably flip for now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
On that day and in the immediate aftermath, Americans and those who admired America spoke about what made our country good: Our constitutionally protected and culturally lauded freedoms, including of speech, religion, and the press.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and campaign manager for Bloomberg’s third-term mayoral run, said he admired Mastro’s moxie, even though the lawyer had several legal tussles with his former boss.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
They watched Siobhan's pixies swiping self-twisting hair ribbons, charm-yarn, and emo-gems while Siobhan admired the starscopes and astrolabes.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
That would be its own kind of insult, and no one worth admiring wants a roster spot handed to him as a gesture.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
"I was just admiring the fish itself, when he just jumped in a millisecond and grabbed into my calf," Achim said.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
The documentary features admiring poets as well as Stephen Colbert, a huge Oliver fan, and the irreverent and colorful John Waters, a longtime friend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
And social media brimmed with foreign fans admiring the US way of life.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
“And here’s some admiring bits about the admiral: stern of jaw, broad of shoulder, never blinks at danger. Sounds like quite a chap.”
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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.
