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''adage'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260331180822-00-⌔
adage - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
adage (plural adages)
- An old saying which has obtained credit by long use.
- ✤ Synonyms: proverb, colloquialism, apophthegm; see also Thesaurus: saying
- ✤ 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 stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure.”1
- (rhetoric) An old saying which has been overused or considered a cliché; a trite maxim.
- ✤ Synonym: old saw
- ✤ Like the poore Cat i’ th’ Addage.2
Noun
adage (plural adages)
- (ballet) Clipping of adagio.
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Middle French adage, from Latin adā̆gium.
Pronunciation
- (Canada, General American, Australian, Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈæd.ɪd͡ʒ/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
- Audio (General American): 🔊
Etymology 2
Clipping of adagio.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /əˈdɑ(d)ʒ/
Printed 2026-06-28.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487: ↩
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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vii], page 135: ↩
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