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Adorn vs Atop - What's the difference?

adorn | atop |

As a verb adorn

is to make more beautiful and attractive; to decorate.

As a noun adorn

is (obsolete) adornment.

As a preposition atop is

on the top of.

As an adverb atop is

on, to, or at the top.

adorn

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make more beautiful and attractive; to decorate.
    • a man adorned with noble statuary and columns
    a character adorned with every Christian grace
    a gallery of paintings was adorned with the works of some of the great masters
  • * Bible, Isa. lxi. 10
    • as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels
  • * Goldsmith
    • At church, with meek and unaffected grace, / His looks adorned the venerable place.

    Synonyms

    * beautify * bedeck * decorate * deck * grace * ornament * prettify * See also

    Noun

  • (obsolete) adornment
    • (Spenser)

    Anagrams

    * * * *

    atop

    English

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • On the top of.
    • He sat atop the mountain, waiting for the end of the world.
  • * 1966 , The Minnesota Review , vol. 6, page 242
    • A virtue is made out of a necessity, with the child feeling far more atop and master of his oddness, his behavior now deliberate or even clever.
  • * 2006 , Dewey Lambdin, The Gun Ketch , page 48
  • *:"And other things," she echoed, nodding slowly and resting her body a little more atop him again.
  • * 2014, (Paul Salopek), Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. , National Geographic (December 2014)[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text]
    • “Monotheism was born here,” Goren tells me atop a cliff overlooking the sheet of iron-colored water.
  • On the top, with "of".

    • Usage notes

    "Atop of" was formerly much more commonly used than now.

    Derived terms

    * thereatop

    Synonyms

    * on top * ontop (mainly US)

    Adverb

    (-)
  • On, to, or at the top.
  • * 1909 , William Dean Howells, Seven English Cities , Kessinger Publishing 2004, p. 46:
    • He has a handsome face, still bearded in the midst of a mostly clean-shaving nation, and with the white hairs prevalent on the cheeks and temples; his head is bald atop , though hardly from the uneasiness of wearing a crown.
  • * 1978 , James C. Humes, Speaker's Treasury of Anecdotes About the Famous , Harper & Row 1978, p. 102:
    • The envoy found the French king playing the part of horse while his young son rode atop .