Adieu or ado?
adieu is an interjection meaning “Said to wish a final farewell; goodbye”; ado is a noun meaning “Trouble; troublesome business; fuss, commotion”. Use adieu as an interjection and ado as a noun (adieu is also a noun: “A farewell, a goodbye; especially a fond farewell, or a…”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) ado is about 2.3 times as common as adieu.
What is the difference between adieu and ado?
| adieu | ado | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, noun | noun |
| Meaning | Said to wish a final farewell; goodbye A farewell, a goodbye; especially a fond farewell, or a lasting or permanent farewell | Trouble; troublesome business; fuss, commotion |
| Example | We bid our final adieus to our family, then boarded the ship, bound for America | none recorded |
| Forms | adieux, adieus | none |
| Pronunciation | /əˈdju/ /əˈdu/ /əˈdjuː/ | /əˈduː/ /əˈdjuː/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 1.6 times per million words |
Sources: adieu and ado in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of adieu and ado
adieu
- 1
Said to wish a final farewell; goodbye
- 2
A farewell, a goodbye; especially a fond farewell, or a lasting or permanent farewell
We bid our final adieus to our family, then boarded the ship, bound for America
ado
- 1
Trouble; troublesome business; fuss, commotion
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, adieu or ado?
adieu appears about once in every 1 million words; ado 1.6 times per million words.
adieu about once in every 1 million wordsado 1.6 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).