early adopter

American

[ur-lee uh-dop-ter] / ˈɜr li əˈdɒp tər /

noun

a person who uses a new product or technology before it becomes widely known or used.

early adopter British

noun

one of the first people or organizations to make use of a new technology

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of early adopter

First recorded in 1845–50

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.

I was an early adopter of “bop” back when we were still using the word to classify the singular bounciness of Carly Rae Jepsen songs in 2015.

From Salon • May 10, 2026

Its corporate communications “was an early adopter and leverages the technology in a number of areas including copy-editing and proofreading, complementing rigorous team member reviews.”

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

Gil had been an early adopter of e-commerce after his old store folded, and he made a nice living selling books on eBay and Amazon.

From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026

Cornell was an early adopter of mainframes and his professor mentors were moving from punch cards to mainframe batch processing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

The area of Jibia was an early adopter of the peace negotiation process, reaching a deal in March this year.

From BBC • Nov. 29, 2025

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023