Adhesion

How to spell adhesion

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce adhesion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does adhesion mean?

1. nounThe action or condition of one surface or substance clinging firmly to another.
2. nounAn abnormal band of scar tissue that binds together body surfaces or organs that are normally separate.

Adhesion in a sentence

• The strong adhesion of the new tape kept the boxes sealed during the move.

• The surgeon had to cut through an adhesion left by the earlier operation.

• Poor adhesion between the paint and the wall caused it to peel within a year.

• Scar tissue can form an adhesion that pulls the intestines out of place.

Where does adhesion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin adhaesionem, a noun built from the verb adhaerere, which meant 'to stick to' or 'to cling to'. That verb joined the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', with the verb haerere, meaning 'to stick' or 'to cling'. English took the word in through French around the early 1600s, originally to describe the act of holding fast or sticking to something. The same haerere root shows up in close relatives such as 'adhere', 'cohere', and even 'hesitate' (literally 'to be stuck' or held back). Remembering that buried 'hes' comes from the same family as 'adhere' helps fix the single 's' and the -sion ending, since the verb adhere simply swaps to the noun adhesion.

How the word is built

• ad- (to)
• hes (from Latin haerere: to stick)
• -ion (noun of action or state)