Home › Glossary › Letter A

adore

Verb
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A verb meaning to love, worship, or admire intensely; in poetry, it may express devotion to a person, deity, ideal, or beautiful object.

Detailed Definition
Adore is common enough today, but in older poetry it can sound more elevated and devotional than ordinary “like” or “love.” Lovelace uses it to suggest the beloved will recognize and approve the speaker’s change in allegiance. Because it is still familiar, it is a borderline choice.
Example
Example in poetry:
“As you too shall adore” means love deeply or revere; “I adore the ordinary miracle of rain” uses intimate, contemporary diction; Donne’s devotional poems often join erotic and sacred forms of adoration; “Do not adore the monument, adore the hands that built it” contrasts worship of objects with people
Additional Notes
The word appears in “As you too shall adore,” where it has a heightened poetic sense, though it is still fairly familiar.; Found in the poem, To Lucasta, Going to the Wars by Richard Lovelace
Also Known As
cherish worship idolize venerate
Skip to main content