adobe

See also: Adobe and adobé

English

Adobe bricks (sense 1)

Adobe brick house (sense 3)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Egyptian ḏbt

Demotic Egyptian tb

Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe)der.

Arabic طُوبَة (ṭūba)

Andalusian Arabic طُوبَة

Andalusian Arabic طُوبder.

Spanish adobebor.

English adobe

From Spanish adobe, from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Sahidic Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Demotic Egyptian ⁠⁠ (tb, “brick”), from Egyptian (ḏbt, “brick, block, ingot”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈdəʊ.bi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈdoʊ.bi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊbi

Noun

adobe (usually uncountable, plural adobes)

2. An unburnt brick dried in the sun.

   Synonyms: dobe, mudbrick

   Many people in Texas and New Mexico live in adobe houses.

   • 1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “(please specify the page)”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC:

     “Find me a nice, clean adobe wall,” says he, “and send Senor Rompiro up against it.”

   • 1904 November, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], Cabbages and Kings, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., page 24:

     Stone sidewalks, little more than a ledge in width, ran along the base of the mean and monotonous adobe houses.

   • 1977, George Lucas, Star Wars (script)

     The Jawas mutter gibberish as they busily line up their battered captives, including Artoo and Threepio, in front of the enormous Sandcrawler, which is parked beside a small homestead consisting of three large holes in the ground surrounded by several tall moisture vaporators and one small adobe block house.

   • 26 May 2003, Roger Angell, in The New Yorker,

     The Sangre de Cristos came into view and the first soft-cornered adobe houses, and that night we ate at La Fonda with my Aunt Elsie, who worked for the Indian Bureau, and had Hopi snake dances and San Ildefonso pottery-makers and Mabel Dodge Luhan in store for us in the coming weeks.

4. The earth from which such bricks are made.
6. A house made of adobe brick.
   • 2007 March 11, Ralph Blumenthal, “Prosecutor’s Ouster Shifts Political Order”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 April 2025:

     The snow-dusted mesas and million-dollar adobes look enchanting as ever […] .

Derived terms

• adobe bread
• adobelike
• adobe lily
• superadobe

Translations

unburnt brick

• Arabic: لَبِنَة f (labina), لَبِن (ar) m pl (labin), طُوب (ar) m pl (ṭūb)

  Egyptian Arabic: طوبة f (ṭūba), طوب m pl (ṭūb)

• Armenian: անթուրծ աղյուս (antʻurc aġyus), ալիզ (hy) (aliz)
• Azerbaijani: palçıq kərpic, yandırılmamış kərpic
• Bulgarian: кирпи́ч (bg) m (kirpíč)
• Catalan: tova (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 土坯 (zh) (tǔpī), 泥砖 (zh) (nízhuān), 砖坯 (zh) (zhuānpī)

• Czech: vepřovice (cs) f
• Dutch: adobe (nl), steenklei
• Esperanto: adobo (eo)
• Estonian: savitellis
• Finnish: savitiili (fi)
• French: adobe (fr) m
• Galician: adobe (gl) m
• German: Adobe (de) m, Lehmziegel (de) m
• Greek: πλίνθος (el) f (plínthos), πλιθί (el) n (plithí)
• Hungarian: vályog (hu), vályogtégla (hu)
• Irish: adóib f
• Japanese: アドベ (adobe)
• Korean: 어도비 (eodobi)
• Macedonian: плитар m (plitar), ќерпич m (ḱerpič)
• Navajo: bis
• Nogai: саман (saman)
• Persian: خشت (fa) (xešt)
• Plautdietsch: Adobe n
• Polish: glinobitka (pl) f
• Portuguese: adobe (pt) m
• Quechua: tika
• Romanian: chirpici (ro) n, văiugă (ro) f
• Russian: сама́н (ru) m (samán)
• Spanish: adobe (es) m
• Swedish: lersten (sv)
• Taos: (the material) adùbiʼíne, (the individual bricks) ną̀xùʼúna
• Turkish: kerpiç (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: كرپیچ (kerpiç), لبن (libn)

• Vietnamese: gạch sống
• Zapotec:

  Isthmus Zapotec: basoo

the earth from which such bricks are made

• Bulgarian: гли́на (bg) f (glína)
• Finnish: tiilisavi
• French: argile (fr) f

a house made of adobe brick

• Apache:

  Western Apache: goshtłʼish bee kįh

• Bulgarian: кирпи́чена къ́ща (bg) f (kirpíčena kắšta)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 土砖房

• Finnish: savitiilitalo
• French: maison en adobes f
• Spanish: casa de adobe f

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “adobe”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Baode, EABOD, abode, boaed

Dutch

Etymology

From Spanish adobe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑˈdoː.bə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ado‧be

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes, diminutive adobetje n)

1. adobe

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish adobe. Doublet of toub.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.dɔb/

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes)

1. adobe

Further reading

• “adobe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Galician

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈdɔbe/ [aˈð̞ɔ.β̞ɪ]
• Rhymes: -ɔbe
• Hyphenation: a‧do‧be

Etymology 1

Attested since the 15th century. Probably from Spanish adobe, from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Sahidic Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Demotic Egyptian ⁠⁠ (tb, “brick”), from Egyptian (ḏbt, “brick, block, ingot”).

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes)

1. adobe (brick)
   • 1437, A. Rodríguez González (ed.), Livro do Concello de Pontevedra (1431-1463). Pontevedra: Museo de Pontevedra, page 132:

     pareçeu y presente Gonçalvo Fiel, moordomo da dita villa, e presentou ao dito juis, alcaldes, jurado e procuradores, a Gonçalvo de Carcaçia preso dos pees con huus adobes e hũa cadea grosa de ferro fechada con hũu cadeado

     there appeared Gonzalvo Fiel, butler of the aforementioned town, to present to the mentioned judge, councilors, juror, and council agent one Gonzalvo of Carcarcía, his feet fettered with some bricks and a thick iron chain which was locked with a padlock

2. clod, divot, clump of earth

   Synonyms: baloco, terrón

References

• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “adobe”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Santamarina, editor (2006–2013), “adobe”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Santamarina, Ernesto X. González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “adobe”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “adobe”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Etymology 2

Verb

adobe

1. inflection of adobar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Gullah

Alternative forms

• a'dobe

Etymology

Compare Twi Akan adobɛ (“a species of palm tree whose leaves, called Daha, are used to create roofing”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔa.do.bɛ/

Noun

adobe

1. a kind of grass (used for roofing)

References

• Lorenzo Dow Turner, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1969)

Indonesian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Egyptian ḏbt

Demotic Egyptian tb

Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe)der.

Arabic طُوبَة (ṭūba)

Andalusian Arabic طُوبَة

Andalusian Arabic طُوبder.

Spanish adobebor.

Indonesian adobe

Borrowed from Spanish adobe, from Andalusian Arabic ظُوْبْ (ḍób), from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Sahidic Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Demotic Egyptian ⁠⁠ (tb, “brick”), from Egyptian

(ḏbt, “brick, block, ingot”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /aˈdobe/ [aˈdo.be]
• Rhymes: -obe
• Syllabification: a‧do‧be

Noun

adobé (plural adobe-adobe)

1. (countable) adobe (an unburnt brick dried in the sun)

   Synonym: bata mentah

Further reading

• “adobe”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Japanese

Romanization

adobe

1. Rōmaji transcription of アドベ

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• adobo

Etymology

Etymology tree

Egyptian ḏbt

Demotic Egyptian tb

Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe)der.

Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb)bor.

Portuguese adobe

Borrowed from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb).

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /aˈdo.bi/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐˈdo.bɨ/ [ɐˈðo.βɨ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐˈdo.bɨ/ [ɐˈðo.βɨ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐˈdo.bɨ/

• Hyphenation: a‧do‧be

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes)

1. adobe (unburnt brick)

Further reading

• “adobe”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈdobe/ [aˈð̞o.β̞e]

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -obe
• Syllabification: a‧do‧be

Etymology 1

From Andalusian Arabic ظُوْبْ (ḍób), from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Sahidic Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Demotic Egyptian ⁠⁠ (tb, “brick”), from Egyptian (ḏbt, “brick, block, ingot”).

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes)

1. (construction) adobe

Descendants

• → Aragonese: adoba
• → Asturian: adobe
• → Basque: adobe
• → Dutch: adobe
• → English: adobe
• → Esperanto: adobo
• → French: adobe
• → Galician: adobe
• → Irish: adóib
• → Italian: adobe
• → Norwegian: adobe
• → Serbo-Croatian: adobe / адобе
• → Tagalog: adobe

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

adobe

1. inflection of adobar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “adobe”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 24th edition, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 30 October 2026

Tagalog

Alternative forms

• adube

Etymology

Etymology tree

Egyptian ḏbt

Demotic Egyptian tb

Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe)der.

Arabic طُوبَة (ṭūba)

Andalusian Arabic طُوبَة

Andalusian Arabic طُوبder.

Spanish adobebor.

Tagalog adobe

Borrowed from Spanish adobe, from Andalusian Arabic ظُوْبْ (ḍób), from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Sahidic Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Demotic Egyptian ⁠⁠ (tb, “brick”), from Egyptian

(ḏbt, “brick, block, ingot”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔaˈdobe/ [ʔɐˈd̪oː.bɛ]
• Rhymes: -obe
• Syllabification: a‧do‧be

Noun

adobe (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜇᜓᜊᜒ) (construction)

1. adobe (brick)
2. adobe stone; quarrystone

Derived terms

• adobihan
• adobihin

See also

• batong-silyar
• silyar

References

• “adobe”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2025
• “adobe”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018
• “adobe”, in Pinoy Dictionary, 2010–2026.
• Cuadrado Muñiz, Adolfo (1972), Hispanismos en el tagalo: diccionario de vocablos de origen español vigentes en esta lengua filipina [Hispanicisms in Tagalog: dictionary of words of Spanish origin still used in this Philippine language], Madrid: Oficina de Educación Iberoamericana [Office of Ibero-American Education], page 12