adaptive
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of adaptive
Compare meaning
How does adaptive compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Use adaptive to describe people who are flexible — they don't lose their cool when plans change quickly and they are always willing to learn new ways to do things. Being adaptive helps you sail along in today's ever-changing world. What do chameleons and your grandparents who only started using computers a few years ago have in common? They are adaptive. Just as chameleons change color to match their surroundings — green when sitting on leaves, brown when climbing the tree's trunk — your grandparents learned the skills to keep up with the world around them. The opposite of adaptive is stubborn. People, lizards, or anything that refuses to change are stubborn. To welcome change is to be adaptive.
Vocabulary lists containing adaptive
30 GRE Words Beginning with "A"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Vocabulary from the Introduction to "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Cosmos
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
However, financial markets are by nature adaptive, and investors can adjust to the higher cost of short-term trading, said Marcus Weyerer, director of ETF investment strategy at Franklin Templeton.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
“Even with adaptive and flexible implementation, significant negative supply and price impacts are a certainty,” the ministers wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
The city of Los Angeles also recently streamlined its adaptive reuse rules to make it easier to convert office buildings to housing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
If that many mutations are helpful, the team calculated that more than 99% of amino acid substitutions should be adaptive.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026
In the jargon of space exploration, the Mars 3 mission was preprogrammed, not adaptive.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions 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.
