adherent vs follower

adherent

noun
  • A person who has membership in some group, association or religion. 

adj
  • Adhesive, sticking to something. 

  • Having the quality of clinging or sticking fast to something. 

  • Attaching or pressing against a different organ. 

follower

noun
  • One who follows mentally, adherer to the opinions, ideas or teachings of another, a movement etc. 

  • A metal piece placed at the top of a candle to keep the wax melting evenly. 

  • One who is a part of master's physical group, such as a servant or retainer. 

  • A tool used to remove the core from a pin-tumbler lock without causing the driver pins and springs to fall out. 

  • Any of the three players (the ruckman, ruck rover, and rover) who usually follow the ball around the ground rather than occupying a fixed position. 

  • An imitator, who follows another's example. 

  • A machine part receiving motion from another. 

  • A pursuer. 

  • An account holder who subscribes to see content from another account on a social media platform. 

  • One who follows, comes after another. 

  • A man courting a maidservant; suitor. 

  • Something that comes after another thing. 

  • Young cattle. 

How often have the words adherent and follower occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )