adage
/əˈdɑ(d)ʒ//ˈæd.ɪd͡ʒ/
adage noun: an old saying which has obtained credit by long use. Also the clipping of adagio.
Noun
adage (plural adages)
- An old saying which has obtained credit by long use.
- According to an old adage, oysters are best in months containing the letter R.
- He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the...1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487
- Synonyms:
- proverb, colloquialism, apophthegm, byword, saying, saw, maxim, apothegm, dictum, gnome
- An old saying which has been overused or considered a cliché; a trite maxim.
- Like the poore Cat i’ th’ Addage.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Synonyms:
- old saw
Also used as
adage is also the clipping of adagio.
adage meaning in Marathi, Tagalog, Persian and Thai
adage in Marathi
- old saying
- म्हण mhaṇ, लोकोक्ती lokoktī
adage in Tagalog
- old saying
- sabihin
adage in Persian
- old saying
- پند pand
adage in Thai
- old saying
- ภาษิต paa-sìt
Examples of adage in a sentence
- Western Europe tends to have a monochronic time orientation, as exemplified by the adage "there is a time and place for everything".
- The adage about egoists who want to be the bride at every wedding proved literally true.
- I guess the old adage good black don't crack was real.
Synonyms of adage
- proverb
- colloquialism
- apophthegm
- byword
- saying
- maxim
- apothegm
- dictum
- gnome
- gnomic saying
Forms of adage
| plural | adages |
|---|
Origin of adage
Borrowed from Middle French adage, from Latin adā̆gium.
Clipping of adagio.
Words formed from adage
Questions about adage
- What does adage mean?
- Adage means an old saying which has obtained credit by long use.
- What is adage in Marathi?
- Adage in Marathi is म्हण (mhaṇ), लोकोक्ती (lokoktī). See Adage meaning in Marathi.
- What part of speech is adage?
- Adage is a noun.
- How do you pronounce adage?
- Adage is pronounced /ˈæd.ɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of adage?
- The plural of adage is adages.
Words near adage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: adage (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-adage.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-adage.wav.
Cite this entry: “adage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/adage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.