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An adhesive is any substance that, when applied to the surfaces of materials, binds the surfaces together and resists separation. The term "adhesive" may be used interchangeably with glue, cement, mucilage, or paste. Adjectives may be used in conjunction with the word “adhesive” to describe properties based on the substance's physical form, its chemical form, the type of materials it is used to join, or the conditions under which it is applied.

The use of adhesives offers many advantages over other binding techniques such as sewing, welding, bolting, screwing, etc. These advantages include the ability to bind different materials together, the ability to distribute stress more efficiently across the joint, the cost effectiveness of an easily mechanized process, an improvement in aesthetic design, and an increased design flexibility. Disadvantages of adhesive use include decreased stability at high temperatures, relative weakness in bonding large objects with a small bonding surface area, and greater difficulty in separating objects during testing.

Adhesives may be found naturally or be produced synthetically. The earliest use of adhesive-like substances by humans was approximately 200,000 years ago. From then until the 1900's, increases in adhesive use and discovery were relatively gradual. Only since the last century has the development of synthetic adhesives accelerated rapidly, and innovation in the field continues to the present.