adorned; adorning; adorns

transitive verb

1
: to enhance the appearance of especially with beautiful objects
adorned the wall with her paintings
2
: to enliven or decorate as if with ornaments
people of fashion who adorned the Court
Choose the Right Synonym for adorn

adorn, decorate, ornament, embellish, beautify, deck, garnish mean to enhance the appearance of something by adding something unessential.

adorn implies an enhancing by something beautiful in itself.

a diamond necklace adorned her neck

decorate suggests relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design.

decorate a birthday cake

ornament and embellish imply the adding of something extraneous, ornament stressing the heightening or setting off of the original

a white house ornamented with green shutters

, embellish often stressing the adding of superfluous or adventitious ornament.

embellish a page with floral borders

beautify adds to embellish a suggestion of counterbalancing plainness or ugliness.

will beautify the grounds with flower beds

deck implies the addition of something that contributes to gaiety, splendor, or showiness.

a house all decked out for Christmas

garnish suggests decorating with a small final touch and is used especially in referring to the serving of food.

an entrée garnished with parsley

Examples of adorn in a Sentence

Her paintings adorn the walls. the Sultan's tent was richly adorned with thick tapestries and gleaming gold candlesticks
Recent Examples on the Web Its oversized subdials have the exotic-dial look, but the watch’s face is otherwise adorned with only the Rolex coronet and Rolex wordmark. Oren Hartov, Robb Report, 22 Mar. 2024 Scenic designer Neil Patel never adorns the blunt, oblong Perelman Performing Arts Center stage with more than a simple desk and a chair or two. Brittani Samuel, Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2024 His office, like the rest of his home, was adorned with souvenirs, framed awards and cutouts of his features in magazines. Katrina Miller, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2024 It’s adorned with speckled eggs in a variety of spring-ready colors, including pink, orange, green, and blue. Jamie Allison Sanders, Peoplemag, 18 Mar. 2024 Martin’s lawyer said in court documents that an old associate of Martin’s with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value. Steve Karnowski, Fortune, 18 Mar. 2024 Racing memorabilia adorns the walls, featuring snapshots of the Andretti family's triumphs. The Arizona Republic, 15 Mar. 2024 The mezzanine guard rails at The Pool were adorned with lifebuoys and the fountain was filled with red-and-white striped floaties, and the dress code on the invitations asked guests to go overboard, staying in line with the theme. Alexis Bennett Parker, Vogue, 15 Mar. 2024 Her Jaeger-LeCoultre 101 Reine timepiece in white gold is adorned with diamonds and features a mother-of-pearl dial. Degen Pener, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adorn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English aournen, adournen, borrowed from Anglo-French aurner, adourner (with d restored from Latin), going back to Latin adōrnāre "to get ready, prepare, decorate, embellish," from ad- ad- + ōrnāre "to prepare, equip, embellish" — more at ornate

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of adorn was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near adorn

Cite this Entry

“Adorn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adorn. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

adorn

verb
: to enhance the appearance of with ornaments

More from Merriam-Webster on adorn

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!