adjacent

adjective

ad·​ja·​cent ə-ˈjā-sᵊnt How to pronounce adjacent (audio)
1
a
: not distant : nearby
the city and adjacent suburbs
b
: having a common endpoint or border
adjacent lots
adjacent sides of a triangle
c
: immediately preceding or following
2
of two angles : having the vertex and one side in common
adjacently adverb
Choose the Right Synonym for adjacent

adjacent, adjoining, contiguous, juxtaposed mean being in close proximity.

adjacent may or may not imply contact but always implies absence of anything of the same kind in between.

a house with an adjacent garage

adjoining definitely implies meeting and touching at some point or line.

had adjoining rooms at the hotel

contiguous implies having contact on all or most of one side.

offices in all 48 contiguous states

juxtaposed means placed side by side especially so as to permit comparison and contrast.

a skyscraper juxtaposed to a church

Examples of adjacent in a Sentence

The Harrimans owned two large adjacent houses on N Street, one for themselves and one for Averell Harriman's pictures. Larry McMurtry, New York Times Review of Books, 23 Oct. 2003
Hearing unexpected chords was linked to magnetic activity in a left-brain region known as Broca's area and in adjacent right-brain tissue. Bruce Bower, Science News, 5 May 2001
The hallways, especially those adjacent to the satellite phone, were crowded with journalists, avid to cover the Taliban takeover … Michael Ignatieff, New Yorker, 24 Mar. 1997
Digging further in that spot and five adjacent areas, they retrieved 19 skulls, five eggs, over 150 jaws and hundreds of teeth, limbs and bone bits. Natalie Angier, Time, 8 Oct. 1984
their house is adjacent to a wooded park
Recent Examples on the Web By The New York Times Rahmatullah Anwari, 30, who used to grow rain-dependent wheat, left his home in Badghis Province in the country’s north for an encampment that has sprung up on the outskirts of Herat, the capital of an adjacent province. Lynsey Addario Victoria Kim, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2024 One of the biggest site challenges in planning, added Healy, has been the fact that the building is sandwiched between two spaces leased by the adjacent Hyatt Regency Cincinnati. The Enquirer, 18 Mar. 2024 See all Example Sentences for adjacent 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adjacent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French agisaunt, adjesant, borrowed from Latin adjacent-, adjacens, present participle of adjacēre "to lie near, border on," from ad- ad- + jacēre "to lie," stative derivative from the base of jacere "to throw" — more at jet entry 3

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of adjacent was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near adjacent

Cite this Entry

“Adjacent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adjacent. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

adjacent

adjective
ad·​ja·​cent ə-ˈjās-ᵊnt How to pronounce adjacent (audio)
1
: lying next or near : having a border or point in common
a field adjacent to the road
2
: having a vertex or a vertex and side in common
adjacent angles
adjacent sides of a rectangle
adjacently adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on adjacent

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!