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
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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"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
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
“And I actually admire those types of people who can just keep pushing forward and shut the noise out and just keep going and striving towards a purpose while operating from a place of purpose.”
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
Once while scrolling, she stopped to admire pictures of a garden on her feed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
We come to admire Ahmad, Perlmutter and Sidhwa, but Teng provides just enough shading so that subtle cultural tensions between the men start to emerge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
“He wears a headlamp. Ingenious, really. I admire his creativity in the face of opposition. Entrepreneurship at its finest—there are no impossibilities, just hurdles to be overcome.”
From "Lawn Boy" by Gary Paulsen
Brydon also spoke about another writing duo he admires - his fellow Gavin and Stacey cast mates Ruth Jones and James Corden.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
The obvious gem of the collection is the attention-getting title story, about the Canadian Nobel laureate Alice Munro, who died in 2024 — and whose complex, layered short fiction Aviv admires.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 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
Stephanides, an American, grandchild of Greeks, admires this Turkish immigrant to Germany, this Gastarbeiter, as he bakes bread on Hauptstrasse here in the year 2001.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Coltrane was a version of the resurrected black man, much like Malcolm X, a public figure he admired.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 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
Intriguingly, Arsenal have admired Chelsea striker Joao Pedro, who was deemed not for sale over the summer, although there were concerns over how he would fit into Arteta's system.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Colonel Fitzwilliam’s manners were very much admired at the Parsonage, and the ladies all felt that he must add considerably to the pleasures of their engagements at Rosings.
From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
The very thing that made their creative work possible – a large, mostly admiring audience – was also its biggest threat.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
"Everyone's admiring everyone and it feels like such a safe place to be, it's so heartwarming."
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
But I can’t help admiring Refn’s commitment to the bit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
And social media brimmed with foreign fans admiring the US way of life.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
She stared down at the robot for a while, admiring her own handiwork.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
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.
