The Meaning of Adjacent: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know the definition of adjacent? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on the word adjacent, including its definition, usage, word origin, and more!

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What does the word adjacent mean?

According to Collins English Dictionary and the American Heritage Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, the word adjacent means next to or beside. This word can be used literally or figuratively as a preposition or adjective. It is also used in maths and geometry to describe of a pair of vertices in a graph that are joined by a common edge or a pair of edges in a graph that are meeting at a common vertex, as well as the side lying between a specified angle and a right angle in a right triangle or right-angled triangle, that is neither the hypotenuse or the opposite. In polygona, any two angles that are sharing a common ray or side, as well as a common vertex, and whose interiors do not overlap are called adjacent angles or a pair of adjacent angles. Adjacent shapes, line segments, angles, sides, and more are all present in math. Adjacent is three syllables – ad-ja-cent, and the pronunciation of adjacent is əˈdʒeɪsənt.

Many different languages also contain words that mean adjacent. You may notice that many of these translations of adjacent look and sound similar to the word adjacent itself. These are called cognates, which are usually formed when two words of different languages have the same root or language of origin. This list of translations for the word adjacent is provided by Word Sense.

  • Finnish: viereinen‎
  •  Catalan: adjacent‎
  •  Polish: przyległy‎ (masc.), przylegający‎ (masc.)
  •  Ido: adjacanta‎
  •  Portuguese: adjacente‎
  •  Swedish: intilliggande‎
  •  Bulgarian: близък‎, съседен‎, допиращ се‎
  •  Bengali: সন্নিহিত‎, সংলগ্ন‎, লাগোয়া‎
  •  Italian: adiacente‎
  •  Romanian: adiacent‎ (masc.)
  •  Scottish Gaelic: dlùth‎
  •  Hungarian: szomszédos‎
  •  Tagalog: tabi‎
  •  Norwegian: nabo-‎, ved siden av‎
  •  Manchu: ᠠᡩᠠᡴᡳ‎ (adaki)
  •  French: adjacent‎
  •  Russian: сосе́дний‎, прилега́ющий‎, примыка́ющий‎
  •  German: daneben‎, anliegend‎, benachbart‎
  •  Chinese – Mandarin: 鄰近‎, 邻近‎
  •  Persian: همسایه‎ (hamsâye), مجاور‎ (mojaver)
  •  Esperanto: najbara‎, apuda‎
  •  Dutch: aanpalend‎, er naast liggend‎, aangrenzend‎, belendend‎, aanliggend‎
  •  Spanish: adyacente‎, colindante‎, contiguo‎
  •  Czech: přilehlý‎

What is the origin of the word adjacent?

According to Etymonline, the adjective adjacent has been used since c15. This comes from the Latin adjacēre meaning to lie next to, from the Latin prefix ad- near and the Latin jacēre to lie. This comes from the Latin adiacēns, from the present participle of adiacēre and the Latin iacēre. This word is of Indo-European roots.

What are synonyms and antonyms of adjacent?

There are plenty of words and phrases that one could choose to use in place of the word adjacent should they wish. These synonyms, which are words and phrases that have the same definition as another word or phrase, are useful to learn if you are trying to expand your vocabulary or if you are trying not to repeat yourself. This list of synonyms of adjacent is provided by Power Thesaurus.

  •  interconnecting
  •  approximate
  •  resting on
  •  side by side
  •  onto
  •  ensuite
  •  adjoining
  •  contiguous
  •  in the ball park
  •  immediate
  •  neighboring
  •  proximity
  •  situated on
  •  handy
  •  tangent
  •  neighbor
  •  close together
  •  side
  •  nearby
  •  impending
  •  in contact
  •  close at hand
  •  proximal
  •  alongside
  •  within sniffing distance
  •  beside
  •  connected
  •  about
  •  next-door
  •  touching
  •  connecting
  •  attached
  •  next door
  •  not remote
  •  approach
  •  next
  •  bordering
  •  approximal
  •  nearest
  •  juxtaposed
  •  imminent
  •  around
  •  convenient
  •  leaning on
  •  next to
  •  vicinal
  •  close-at-hand
  •  joined
  •  in contact with
  •  close by
  •  adjacently
  •  around the corner
  •  hard by
  •  at
  •  nearly
  •  opposed to
  •  neighborhood
  •  along
  •  close
  •  in neighborhood
  •  side-by-side
  •  verging
  •  counter to
  •  proximate to
  •  vicinity
  •  abutting
  •  cheek by jowl with
  •  neighbouring
  •  neighbour
  •  related
  •  across the street
  •  nigh
  •  closest
  •  near-at-hand
  •  surrounding
  •  closer
  •  easy to reach
  •  accessible
  •  close-by
  •  closely
  •  along toward
  •  conterminous
  •  flush
  •  coterminous
  •  in close proximity
  •  at hand
  •  in contrast to
  •  in spitting distance
  •  at elbows
  •  near
  •  local
  •  at close quarters
  •  in opposition to
  •  in the vicinity of
  •  within spitting distance
  •  proximate
  •  end-to-end
  •  by
  •  near at hand
  •  contrary to

There are also plenty of words and phrases that have the opposite meaning as adjacent. These are called antonyms, which are another ebay way to learn more English words to add to your vocabulary. This list of antonyms of adjacent is also provided by Power Thesaurus.

  •  foreign to
  •  distant
  •  isolated
  •  in the back of beyond
  •  different
  •  far
  •  far from
  •  opposite
  •  far off
  •  from far away
  •  beyond the black stump
  •  alien to
  •  far-off
  •  apart
  •  abroad
  •  godforsaken
  •  free-standing
  •  dim and distant
  •  far-flung
  •  dim and distant from
  •  single
  •  disconnected from
  •  disconnected
  •  out of the way
  •  inaccessible
  •  detached
  •  away
  •  far removed from
  •  cut off
  •  uncompanionable
  •  deep
  •  far removed
  •  aloof
  •  alone
  •  longitudinal
  •  obscure
  •  faraway from
  •  farthest
  •  outlying
  •  different from
  •  off the beaten track
  •  abstracted
  •  faraway
  •  lonely
  •  cut-off
  •  afar
  •  unconnected
  •  remote
  •  not close
  •  separate

How can the word adjacent (adj.) be used in a sentence?

The apartment was adjacent to a motel. The tenants hated all of the coming and going. 

The company had offices in many adjacent contiguous states, including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and one at Princeton University in New Jersey.

France is contiguous with a side of Germany just as Utah is adjacent to the contiguous state of Idaho. We took an adjacent route to travel between them due to the uptick in traffic on the highway. 

The girl’s sister lived in the adjacent room that shared a common boundary. This connected next room did not afford them much privacy, and neither did the next-door neighbor staring over the adjacent sides of the fence.

Rocky Mountain National Park was a 25-minute drive northwest but there were 20-plus miles of trails to hike in the adjacent Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in adjacent cities. We looked off the top of the cliff and admired the beauty.

The female artists had their office adjacent to those of the software giants, and rather than being angry, allowed it to serve as inspiration for their word. The software companies even supplied them with a handful of products to support their mission.

Overall, the word adjacent means next to or beside. This word is LAtin in origin.

Sources:

  1. adjacent: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense 
  2. Adjacent synonyms – 442 Words and Phrases for Adjacent | Power Thesaurus 
  3. Adjacent antonyms – 236 Opposites of Adjacent | Power Thesaurus
  4. adjacent | Origin and meaning of adjacent | Online Etymology Dictionary