- ə nt adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin adjacent-, adjacens, present participle of adjacēre to lie near, border on, from ad- + jacēre to lie, from jacere to throw — more at jet (to spout)
1.
a. : not distant or far off
the city square and the adjacent streets
: nearby but not touching
the islands and the adjacent mainland coast
b. : relatively near and having nothing of the same kind intervening : having a common border : abutting , touching : living nearby or sitting or standing relatively near or close together
hills … composed of oyster shells … the adjacent inhabitants burn them — Mark van Doren
c. : immediately preceding or following with nothing of the same kind intervening
2. of two angles : having the same vertex and one side in common
Synonyms:
adjoining , abutting , contiguous , conterminous , coterminous , juxtaposed : adjacent is sometimes merely a synonym for near or for close to
the heavy lands adjacent to Paris — Charles Dickens
Indian Pass, Mount Marcy, and the adjacent mountains — John Burroughs
the safety of the western hemisphere and of the seas adjacent thereto — F.D.Roosevelt
Applied to things of the same type, it indicates either side-by-side proximity or lack of anything of the same nature intervening
the doors of the adjacent apartment were opened, and Egmont saw himself surrounded — J.L.Motley
adjoining is quite similar to adjacent in meaning and suggestion but may more strongly indicate existence of common bounding lines or lines or points of junction
in upstate New York and the adjoining counties of Pennsylvania — Hans Kurath
the grayish white stone building and the adjoining graveyard — American Guide Series: Pennsylvania
abutting most strongly predicates actual contact at a bounding or dividing line
abutting lots
the state of Utah and the abutting state of Idaho — W.L.Sperry
the north wall, to which abutting rooms were added — Christopher Hussey
contiguous shows variable usage but is likely to suggest touching along a dividing line; it may indicate an unbroken continuity
Marsh and McDunn were each alone in contiguous labs, and McDunn attests that Marsh was still at the telephone when he entered his lab — Edith C. Rivett
Tompkinsville and Stapleton are contiguous localities, virtually indistinguishable from each other — American Guide Series: New York City
adjacent events need not be contiguous; just as there may be stretches of a string which are not occupied by beads, so the child may experience uneventful periods of time — James Jeans
conterminous may apply to a boundary strip in common; often it and coterminous indicate that all boundaries for two areas are the same and consequently that the two are practically identical
conterminous with Philadelphia county, the Quaker City lies along the west bank of the Delaware river — American Guide Series: Pennsylvania
the city and county of Philadelphia are coterminous — American Year Book
the mythology of early man was not conterminous with the religion of early man — F.B.Gummere
the history of Zionism, in fact, is coterminous with the history of Jewry — H.E.Wedeck
juxtaposed indicates placement face to face and may suggest likelihood of contrast or opposition
opulence wildly juxtaposed to unbelievable poverty — Virginia A. Oakes
disputes about water rights were almost inevitable between closely juxtaposed communities with expanding populations — V.G.Childe