adjustment
Americannoun
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adjustments
plural
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the act of adjusting; adaptation to a particular condition, position, or purpose.
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the state of being adjusted; orderly relation of parts or elements.
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a device, as a knob or lever, for adjusting.
the adjustments on a television set.
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the act of bringing something into conformity with external requirements.
the adjustment of one's view of reality.
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harmony achieved by modification or change of a position.
They worked out an adjustment of their conflicting ideas.
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Sociology. a process of modifying, adapting, or altering individual or collective patterns of behavior so as to bring them into conformity with other such patterns, as with those provided by a cultural environment.
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Insurance. the act of ascertaining the amount of indemnity that the party insured is entitled to receive under the policy, and of settling the claim.
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a settlement of a disputed account or claim.
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a change or concession, as in price or other terms, in view of minor defect or the like.
noun
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the act of adjusting or state of being adjusted
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a control for regulating
the adjustment for volume is beside the speaker
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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misadjustmentnoun
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nonadjustmentnoun
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overadjustmentnoun
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preadjustmentnoun
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underadjustmentnoun
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adjustmentaladjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of adjustment
Explanation
The act of making an alteration or modification is an adjustment. If you buy a new pair of jeans, but they are too long, you can make a quick adjustment and hem them, have someone else hem them, or use safety pins. The process of adapting to your environmental conditions is also called an adjustment. After you leave home for college, both you and your parents will have a period of adjustment. Some people adjust easier to change than others — you may be having a ball going to class, eating cereal for dinner, and making new friends but an adjustment your parents will have to make is that they will need to stop worrying about you.
Vocabulary lists containing adjustment
Schooled
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A Single Shard
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Word Generation Weekly - Series 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
However, it lowers the stock’s target price by 7.7% to 1,560 rupees due to a roll-forward adjustment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is one of the biggest perks of Social Security, because it provides inflation protection so that retirees’ purchasing power isn’t diminished over their retirements.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
McManus said his experience with the Packers — in 2024 he joined them near midseason — would help him make a quick adjustment to the Rams and snapper Joe Cardona and holder Evans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2026
It’s slightly distracting that his character was assembled by a basket weaver out of wicker, but it takes only a bit of adjustment to get used to the creaking noises he makes when he moves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
Everything signified, everything blared and reverberated as though some adjustment was off, some knob turned all the way up.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
That includes any adjustments that their Big Tech customers might make to their spending plans.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Economists think the ECI is the best measure of trends in labor compensation because it includes the public sector, makes adjustments for the mix of jobs and is better for measuring pay changes with industries.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
The British energy major’s adjusted earnings–a closely watched metric that strips out certain commodity price adjustments and one-time charges–surged to $10.81 billion from the $5.43 billion it reported in the same period last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
Gynecological pain is so often neglected, and it’s a space where even small adjustments can represent an improvement.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026
I just kept moving the wheel a little to the left and a little to the right, pretending that my small adjustments actually made a difference.
From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
