These words refer to the warm respect and honour with which one may regard an admirable person or institution. Revere is less formal and warmer in tone than reverence , which emphasizes solemnity. It is more appropriate for an institution or idea than a person, and it perhaps excessively formal in some cases: a master who still reveres his old teacher; the underprivileged who are asked to reverence the goals of a free society.

Worship and venerate both, of course, function directly in a religious context; in this case, worship might be reserved for expressing one’s attitude to the divinity, while venerate could apply to an exemplary religious person, idea or aspect: worshipping God and venerating the saints. More broadly, in other contexts, venerate is often used in conjunction with the notions of dignity and advanced age: venerating the old man for the wisdom and courage he had shown throughout his long career. Worship can be used more generally: a father who simply worships his children. Sometimes it may suggest an excess and uncritical respect: people who worshipped Chairman Mao as though he were some sort of demigod.

Adore suggests the most tenderness and warmth of any of these words, and, while it has a religious use, it functions in other contexts with fewer religious overtones than its synonyms: adoring the name of God; boys who adore their mothers. The word suggests the situation of love at a distance or the putting of someone on a pedestal more than it does a realistic, equal sharing of affection. Idolize is an extreme example of the overtones inherent in adore . While its pejorative possibilities should be clear in suggesting a slavish, servile, helpless love, the word is surprisingly enough often used with no negative intent whatsoever: men who idolize rather than attempt to satisfy their wives: a writer who simply idolized the novels of Dostoevski.