early adopter

American  

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

noun

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

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early adopter British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of early adopter

First recorded in 1845–50

Example Sentences

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

People who don’t live near one of these early adopter cities might not realize how common the sight of driverless cars has become.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 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

Japan, which had always heavily relied on energy imports, was an early adopter of nuclear power.

From BBC • Jan. 21, 2026

Henrich, an early adopter of daguerreotype cameras, shoots photographs of women posing with skulls like he’s paving the way for Del Toro’s whole filmography.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2025