Meaning & use
adorned
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“adorned” is a form of “adorn”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
adjectiveafter a verb
Decorated with ornaments or other attractive details.
Grammar: Usually follows be or a noun, with with: a hall adorned with flowers.
Patterns
- adorned with something
- be adorned in something
The hall was adorned with paper lanterns.
Her dress was adorned with tiny pearls.
verbtransitive
Past tense and past participle of adorn: to make something look more attractive by adding decoration.
Grammar: Takes an object: they adorned the tree with lights.
Patterns
- adorn something with something
Guests adorned the tables with candles.
Murals adorned the walls of the old station.
Common combinations
- adorned with jewels
- The crown was adorned with jewels.
- richly adorned
- The palace was richly adorned.
- adorned with flowers
- The path was adorned with flowers.
- adorned with lights
- The street was adorned with lights.
Synonyms and how they differ
- decorated
- Decorated is the plain everyday word and carries no sense of elegance.
- embellished
- Embellished suggests extra detail added to improve something, often a story or design.
- ornamented
- Ornamented implies formal, carefully fashioned decoration.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: adorned or adored?
adorned vs adored
Adored means loved deeply, while adorned means decorated.
Practice
The cathedral walls were ____ with gold leaf.
Choose one answer.
Adorned with means decorated with. Adored (loved) sounds similar but does not fit the sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “adorned”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.