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adherence

 
(ăd-hîr'əns, -hĕr'-) pronunciation
n.
  1. The process or condition of adhering.
  2. Faithful attachment; devotion: "Adherence to the rule of law . . . is a very important principle" (William H. Webster).

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Fowler's Modern English Usage:

adherence, adhesion

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Both words were adopted from French in the 17th century, and come from the Latin verb which also gives us our verb adhere. Adherence is now mostly used in figurative senses relating to beliefs, loyalties, laws and regulations, etc., whereas adhesion has tended more and more to imply physical contact between surfaces, e.g. the grip of wheels on road or rail, the sticking or gluing together of two surfaces, etc. Contrary uses are also found, especially of adhesion in figurative meanings, but these no longer sound natural
(Others...fell under his control through the adhesion to France of their ruler, the Prince-Bishop of Liège—Winston Churchill, 1957
his blind adhesion to the failed ideology of socialism—weblog, New Zealand English 2005 [Old English (up to 1150)C]).

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Roget's Thesaurus:

adherence

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noun

    The close physical union of two objects: adhesion, bond, cohesion. See connect.

Word Tutor:

adherence

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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: n. - Faithful support for a religion or cause or political party; The property of sticking together (as of glue and wood) or the joining of surfaces of different composition.

Tutor's tip: Glue has great "adherence" (act of sticking), and most people are "adherents" (those who stick with an idea) of that statement.

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Copyrights:

American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Fowler's Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press. © 1999, 2004 All rights reserved.  Read more
Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; sign up free Read more
 Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved.  Read more

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