adjacent

English

WOTD – 11 February 2009

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “OED says this comes from middle/old French, then from Latin”) Borrowed from Latin adiacēns, adiacentis, derivative of adiaceō (“I lie beside”); from ad (“to”) + iaceō (“I lie down”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈd͡ʒeɪ.sənt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ə(ɖ)d͡ʒəˈsɛɳʈ/, /ˈa(ɖ)d͡ʒəsənʈ/

Adjective

adjacent (not comparable)

1. Lying next to, close, or contiguous; neighboring; bordering on.

   Synonyms: abutting, adjoining, contiguous, juxtaposed, near

   Antonyms: apart, distant, nonadjacent

   Because the conference room is filled, we will have our meeting in the adjacent room.

2. Just before, after, or facing.

   The picture is on the adjacent page.

3. (figuratively, postpositive) Related to; suggestive of; bordering on.
   • 2018 October 27, Alex Williams, “Why Is CBD Everywhere?”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     It would be false to suggest CBD is nothing more than an obsession for reiki-adjacent bicoastal millennials.

   • 2018 December 25, “Faith Leaders Speak about Leading Through Natural Disasters; Who's Been Naughty and Nice in 2018 Politics?”, in New Day‎, Chris Cillizza (actor), via CNN, retrieved 27 July 2019:

     First of all, she's probably the most popular politics-adjacent figure in the country. She's not a politician. She's never run for anything, but I have said for a long time – I think we all agree – if she did ever want to run for something, she would be right at the front of the line.

Derived terms

• adjacency
• adjacent angle
• adjacently
• adjacentness
• circumadjacent
• coadjacent
• nonadjacent
• subadjacent
• unadjacent

Translations

lying next to, close, or contiguous; neighboring

Arabic: مُجَاوِر m (mujāwir) Azerbaijani: bitişik, yanaşıq Basque: ondoan, aldamenean, aldean, alboan Bengali: সন্নিহিত (bn) (śonnihito), সংলগ্ন (bn) (śoṅlogno), লাগোয়া (bn) (lagōẇa) Bulgarian: близък (bg) (blizǎk), съседен (bg) (sǎseden), допиращ се (dopirašt se) Catalan: adjacent (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 鄰近的 / 邻近的 (zh) (línjìn de) Czech: přilehlý (cs) Danish: tilstødende, tilliggende, ved siden af Dutch: aanpalend (nl), er naast liggend, aangrenzend (nl), belendend (nl), aanliggend (nl) Esperanto: najbara, apuda Finnish: viereinen (fi) French: adjacent (fr) Galician: adxacente (gl), contiguo (gl) German: daneben (de), anliegend (de), benachbart (de), adjazent (de) Hungarian: szomszédos (hu), mellette lévő Ido: adjacanta (io) Italian: adiacente (it) Japanese: 隣接 (ja) Malayalam: തൊട്ടടുത്ത (toṭṭaṭutta) Manchu: ᠠᡩᠠᡴᡳ (adaki) Maori: tūtata, pātata (mi), kāpīpiti, piritaha Norwegian: nabo-, ved siden av (no) Bokmål: tilstøtende Occitan: adjacent (oc) Persian: همسایه (fa) (hamsâye), مجاور (mojâver) Polish: przyległy (pl), przylegający Portuguese: adjacente (pt) Romanian: adiacent (ro) Russian: сосе́дний (ru) (sosédnij), прилега́ющий (ru) (prilegájuščij), примыка́ющий (ru) (primykájuščij) Scottish Gaelic: dlùth Slovak: priľahlý, vedľajší Spanish: adyacente (es), colindante (es), contiguo (es) Swedish: intilliggande (sv), angränsande (sv) Tagalog: tabi Venetan: adiaxente m or f Vietnamese: bên cạnh (vi), liền (vi), nối (vi)

just before, after, or facing

Arabic: مُجَاوِر m (mujāwir) Bulgarian: съседен (bg) (sǎseden) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: přilehlý (cs) Dutch: aanpalend (nl), tegenoverstaand Finnish: viereinen (fi) German: umliegend (de), nachfolgend (de), darauffolgend (de) Italian: adiacente (it) Malayalam: തൊട്ടടുത്ത (toṭṭaṭutta) Norwegian: foregående, forutgående (both signifying previous), etterfølgende, følgende (no), påfølgende (no), neste (no) (all signifying next), motsatt (no) (facing) Portuguese: adjacente (pt) Russian: сосе́дний (ru) (sosédnij), прилега́ющий (ru) (prilegájuščij) Slovak: susedný, vedľajší, priľahlý Vietnamese: liền (vi)

(postpositive) suggestive of, bordering on

Japanese: らしい (ja) (rashii), ではんばかりな (ja) (dewan bakari-na)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Vietnamese: (please verify) gần (vi), (please verify) liền (vi), (please verify) ngay (vi), (please verify) nối (vi)

Noun

adjacent (plural adjacents)

1. Something that lies next to something else, especially the side of a right triangle that is neither the hypotenuse nor the opposite.
   • 1980, Faber Birren, The textile colorist:

     Again, the key colors have twice the area of the adjacents.

   • 2011, Mark Zegarelli, ACT Math For Dummies, page 194:

     Picking out the opposite, the adjacent, and the hypotenuse […]

Preposition

adjacent

1. Next to; beside.

   The house adjacent to the school was demolished.

   A notice was sent to the house adjacent the school.

2. (figuratively) Related to; suggestive of; bordering on.
   • 2008 March 27, Ingrid Lunden, “Braintree launches Extend to integrate loyalty, fraud prevention and other services into payments”, in TechCrunch‎, retrieved 26 July 2019:

     While Amazon has increasingly become a one-stop shop for some people, we’re also seeing a large proliferation of online companies looking to connect with users wherever they happen to be spending the most time, whether that’s on a social media platform, or on a site that caters to interests adjacent to the businesses’s own — and most importantly not necessarily on the company’s own web properties.

Usage notes

This preposition is usually used with the word to, i.e., "adjacent to". However, in the U.S., adjacent is sometimes used on its own.

References

• Bromwich, Jonah Engel (16 July 2019), “Why Is Everything ‘Adjacent’ Now?”, in The New York Times‎, retrieved 26 July 2019

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin adiacentem. Doublet of eina.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ə.d͡ʒəˈsen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ə.d͡ʒəˈsent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [a.d͡ʒaˈsent]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

adjacent m or f (masculine and feminine plural adjacents)

1. adjacent (lying next to)

Further reading

• “adjacent”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “adjacent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “adjacent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “adjacent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin adiacentem, present active participle of adiaceō (“adjoin, border”). Doublet of aise.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.dʒa.sɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Adjective

adjacent (feminine adjacente, masculine plural adjacents, feminine plural adjacentes)

1. adjacent

Further reading

• “adjacent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

adjacent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of adjaceō

Occitan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin adiacēns, adiacentem, present active participle of adiaceō (“adjoin, border”).

Adjective

adjacent m (feminine singular adjacenta, masculine plural adjacents, feminine plural adjacentas)

1. adjacent (lying next to)

Polish

Noun

adjacent m pers

1. Pre-1936 spelling of adiacent.

Declension

Declension of adjacent

	singular	plural
nominative	adjacent	adjacenci/adjacenty (deprecative)
genitive	adjacenta	adjacentów
dative	adjacentowi	adjacentom
accusative	adjacenta	adjacentów
instrumental	adjacentem	adjacentami
locative	adjacencie	adjacentach
vocative	adjacencie	adjacenci