Admiration is the feeling of respect and approval you experience when you encounter something or someone truly impressive. When you watch an Olympic gymnast execute a perfect routine, read about Marie Curie's groundbreaking discoveries in radioactivity, or see your older sister master a difficult piano piece after months of practice, that warm feeling of respect mixed with wonder is admiration.

Admiration combines appreciation with recognition of real excellence. When you admire your friend's courage in standing up to a bully, you're recognizing a quality worth respecting. When you admire your grandmother's ability to speak three languages fluently, you're appreciating real skill and dedication.

People can admire qualities like bravery, creativity, intelligence, or kindness. You can also admire achievements, like a perfectly built sandcastle or a brilliant chess move. The key is that admiration involves recognizing excellence or virtue in a way that makes you want to celebrate it and sometimes even develop those same qualities yourself.

Being admirable means possessing qualities worthy of admiration. An admirer is someone who feels admiration for a person or thing.