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Adam

proper nouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈædəm//
  • United Kingdom//ˈadəm//
  • Australia//ˈædəm//
  • Australia/[ˈæɾm̩]/
  • Australia/[ˈæɾəm]/

The first man and the progenitor of the human race.

proper noun

  1. 1

    The first man and the progenitor of the human race.

    And Adam called his wiues name Eue, because she was the mother of all liuing.

    Say Goddeſs, what enſu'd when Raphael, / The affable Arch-angel, had forewarn'd / Adam by dire example to beware / Apoſtaſie,

  2. 2

    A male given name from Hebrew.

    In his tall stalwartness Adam Bede was a Saxon, and justified his name; but the jet-black hair, made the more noticeable by its contrast with the light paper cap, and the keen glance of the dark eyes that shone from under strongly marked, proninent, and mobile eyebrows, indicated a mixture of Celtic blood.

    Since then I have deciphered some more of Adam’s hieroglyphics, and think he has now become sufficiently important as a public character to justify this publication.

    What splendid names for boys there are! / There's Carol like a rolling car, / And Martin like a flying bird, / And Adam like the Lord's First Word,

    The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff, a key lawmaker in Democrats’ congressional investigations into former President Donald Trump during his presidency.

  3. 3

    figurativeOriginal sin or human frailty.

  4. 4

    Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice, in Christian theology, makes possible the forgiveness of Adam's original sin.

    And so it is written: The first man Adam was made a liuing soule, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

    Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in thy love.

    Christ, the true and better Adam, Son of God and Son of man; Who, when tempted in the garden never yielded, never sinned.

  5. 5

    Designating a neoclassical style of furniture and architecture in the style of Robert and James Adam.

    Inside were six-panelled doors, wide floor-boards, a curving colonial staircase, white Adam-period mantels, and a rear set of rooms three steps below the general level.

    McIntyre's best pieces, such as the fireplace in the Otis house, managed to convey both an opulent warmth and a restrained elegance, and compares favorably with the artistic saturnalia of an Adam fireplace.

  6. 6

    An English surname originating as a patronymic.

  7. 7

    A Scottish surname originating as a patronymic.

  8. 8

    A French surname originating as a patronymic.

  9. 9

    A German surname originating as a patronymic.

  10. 10

    slangThe drug ecstasy.

    I prefer to call it "Adam." "Ecstasy" is a beautiful word, but I think Ecstasy is a word more often used by people taking it for thrills.

    I heard people say they were taking "Adam." Is that the same drug or something different? Ecstasy goes by many different names […]

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Semitic *ʔadam- Hebrew אָדָםbor. Ancient Greek Ἀδάμ (Adám)bor. Latin Ādāmlbor. Old English Adam Middle English Adam English Adam From Middle English Adam, from Old English Adam, from Latin Adam, Adamus, from Ancient Greek Ἀδάμ (Adám), Ἄδαμος (Ádamos), from Biblical Hebrew אָדָם (adam, “earth, man, soil, light brown”), from אדמה (adamah, “red earth, ground”).

Forms

plural
Adams
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).