🇺🇸
/əˈdɔːr/
🇺🇸
/əˈdɔːr/
🇬🇧
/əˈdɔːr/
🇬🇧
/əˈdɔːr/
Past Tense
adored
Past Participle
adored
Gerund
adoring
3rd Person
adores
Adore means to love someone or something deeply and enthusiastically — often with a sense of delight, reverence, or even playful obsession. It’s stronger than 'like' and warmer than 'love'; you might adore your pet, a favorite dessert, or a childhood movie — not just respect or enjoy it, but feel genuine, joyful devotion toward it.
She adores her grandmother's homemade apple pie.
He adores hiking in the mountains every weekend.
I absolutely adore the way sunlight filters through the trees in autumn.
They adore traveling to places where no one speaks their language.
My niece adores singing show tunes in the bathtub.
ad-
Comes from the Latin preposition 'ad', meaning 'to' or 'toward'. It expresses direction, approach, or addition. Examples include adore, attract, adhere, adopt, adjust.
orare
Comes from the Latin verb 'orare', meaning 'to speak', 'to pray', or 'to plead'. In 'adore', it evolved via 'adorare' (literally 'to speak to, pray to, worship') — combining 'ad-' + 'orare'. This root conveys reverence, supplication, or intense expression. Examples include oration, oracle, exhort, adjure, abhor (via 'ab-' + 'orare', originally 'to shudder away from in prayer').