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

See Examples For:

early adopter

Canadian YouTuber Lauren Southern, for instance, was an early adopter of pick-me conservatism whose first video, posted when she was 19, was titled “Why I’m not a feminist.”

From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026

As a partner at the advisory firm ISG where he focuses on enterprise software, Smith can be classified as a tech-savvy early adopter.

From BBC ● May 13, 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

As an “SCTV” early adopter, O’Hara was first attractive to me because she was funny, but she was also beautiful — a beauty she could subvert by a subtle or broad rearrangement of her features.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 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