Word
ado
US/əˈdu/
UK/ɐdˈuː/
Definition
n. a lot of unnecessary excitement, worry, or activity.
n. unnecessary activity, fuss, or ceremony, often surrounding a minor matter.
Examples
“Without further ado, let's begin the show.”
“After much ado about the seating arrangements, the wedding ceremony finally started an hour late.”
“The committee spent months debating the proposal with much ado, only to reject the final draft during a five-minute meeting on Friday afternoon.”
Examples
simple
“Without further ado, let's begin the show.”
contextual
“After much ado about the seating arrangements, the wedding ceremony finally started an hour late.”
complex
“The committee spent months debating the proposal with much ado, only to reject the final draft during a five-minute meeting on Friday afternoon.”
Usage
Commonly used in the phrase 'without further ado' to mean 'without wasting any more time'.
Real-World Examples
“Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2026 Ig Nobel prizes.” Etymology
From Northern Middle English at do (“to do”), infinitive of do, don (“to do”), see do. Influenced by an Old Norse practice of marking the infinitive by using the preposition at, att (compare Danish at gå (“to go”)). More at at, do.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Idioms
much ado about nothing — A lot of fuss or bother about something trivial.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/ado