Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Admire for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "admire" — a verb, pronounced /ədˈmaɪə/, with the stress on "mire".
Narrator: To admire is to regard with approval — people for their qualities, things for their beauty or craft.
Narrator: In plain English, admiring is looking up and liking what you see — the mentor's career, the mountain view, the neat solution.
Narrator: It comes from the Latin "admirari" — to wonder at — "ad-", at, plus "mirari", to marvel, the root beneath miracle and mirror alike.
Narrator: In Shakespeare's day it still meant astonishment — to admire something was to be amazed by it, approval optional.
Narrator: Time warmed the wonder into respect — modern admiring approves as it marvels: esteem, with a touch of the original awe.
Narrator: It splits into two everyday jobs — admiring people for character and achievement, and admiring things: pausing to admire the view, the garden, the craftsmanship.
Narrator: In tone it is warm and generous — one of the language's kindest verbs to give.
Narrator: So remember: to admire is to marvel with approval — wonder, grown warm.
Speaker A: Gallery afternoon report — I spent a full ten minutes admiring one tiny watercolour yesterday, and the guard started admiring MY dedication. We had a lovely chat about looking slowly.
Speaker B: Both of you using the word perfectly! To admire — to regard with respect or pleasure — covers the painting AND your patience. Things for their beauty, people for their qualities.
Speaker A: The two jobs of one verb! And it's from marvelling, isn't it — like miracle?
Speaker B: Same Latin root — "mirari", to marvel, kin to miracle and mirror. In Shakespeare's time, admire still meant to be astonished — approval not included! The centuries warmed the wonder into respect.
Speaker A: So Elizabethans admired earthquakes and we admire watercolours! Example sentences for today?
Speaker B: "I admire her honesty more than her success"; "we stopped to admire the sunset"; "you have to admire the engineering, whatever you think of the building" — character, beauty, and grudging respect.
Speaker A: The grudging one is interesting — admiring something you don't like?
Speaker B: The verb's mature trick — "you have to admire his persistence" often means the persistence is infuriating but impressive. Respect and irritation, cohabiting!
Speaker A: Common mistakes with the word?
Speaker B: The preposition trap — you admire someone FOR a quality, never "admire on" or "admire about": "I admire her for her patience". And one social caution: "I was just admiring your..." needs care — context decides whether it charms or unsettles!
Speaker A: Admire FOR — filed! And close synonyms — respect, esteem?
Speaker B: "Respect" is cooler and can be earned reluctantly — you respect a rival; "esteem" is respect in formal dress — held in high esteem; "adore" overshoots into love; "appreciate" understands the value without the upward gaze. "Admire" keeps the marvel — the looking UP. Your ten watercolour minutes were etymologically pure!
Speaker B: Let's use "admire" in AI prompts — the aspiration word: it points the AI at excellence worth imitating.
Speaker A: So admire in a prompt names the standard to chase?
Speaker B: Exactly. For design direction, you'd write:
Prompt: Redesign my app's onboarding in the spirit of flows people admire — one idea per screen, progress visible, and a real result delivered before any signup demand. The admired patterns applied, so first impressions earn the upward gaze.
Speaker B: "Admire" steers toward proven excellence — patterns that won respect, not novelty for its own sake.
Speaker A: Chasing what deserves the marvel! What about code quality?
Speaker B: The craftsman prompt:
Prompt: Refactor my checkout module into code a senior developer would admire — small named functions, obvious data flow, and comments only where the why isn't visible. Craft worth studying, so the next reader learns instead of suffers.
Speaker A: Code as the tiny watercolour — worth ten minutes of looking!
Speaker B: The highest compliment in the trade. For showcasing:
Prompt: Build a showcase section where users can admire finished projects in my portfolio app — large images, the story behind each piece, and unhurried spacing that invites slow looking. A gallery, not a grid, so work gets the gaze it earned.
Speaker A: The museum guard's philosophy, as layout! What about learning from rivals?
Speaker B: The grudging-respect prompt:
Prompt: List what users admire about my three biggest competitors — the specific features and touches praised in their reviews, each mapped to what my app could learn from it. Respect studied honestly, so the rival's best becomes my homework.
Speaker A: Could admiration power a community feature?
Speaker B: The kind verb, socially:
Prompt: Add an admire reaction to my creative community app — distinct from like, limited to a few per day so it stays meaningful, with a weekly most-admired showcase. Scarce praise, real praise, so the marvel keeps its worth.
Speaker A: So "admire" aims the onboarding, crafts the code, hangs the gallery, studies the rivals, and rations the applause.
Speaker B: Exactly — the wonder-grown-warm word: point your prompts at what deserves admiring, and the work rises to meet the gaze.
Admire — meaning in Arabic & definition More A courses GL Dictionary