adaptive
Americanadjective
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Etymology
Origin of adaptive
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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"
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Vocabulary from the Introduction to "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal
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Cosmos
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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.
Langerhans cells in the epidermis and dendritic cells in the dermis help connect the innate and adaptive branches of the immune system by presenting antigens to other immune cells.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026
The games will take place in Birmingham from 10 to 17 July next year, with 550 wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans from 25 nations expected to compete in 12 adaptive sports.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
Slipping into survival mode, going through the motions without feeling the crushing weight of the reality of a situation, can be an adaptive response when you’re in the middle of a crisis.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
You have to stay adaptive, keep making small bets, keep getting feedback, and not get attached to your first answer.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
If anything, it stood even more upright: at the end of the long chain of adaptive evolution was the well-adjusted, best-erected, most perfected mammal of them all: humans.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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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.
