adapt
Americanverb (used with object)
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adapts,
present (3rd person singular)
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adapted,
past participle, past
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adapting
present participle
verb (used without object)
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adapts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
adapted,
past participle, past
-
adapting
present participle
verb
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(often foll by to) to adjust (someone or something, esp oneself) to different conditions, a new environment, etc
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(tr) to fit, change, or modify to suit a new or different purpose
to adapt a play for use in schools
Synonym Usage
See adjust.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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adaptabilitynoun
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adaptednessnoun
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misadaptverb
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readaptverb (used with object)
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adaptableadjective
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adaptiveadjective
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nonadaptingadjective
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unadaptedadjective
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well-adaptedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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adaptsimple
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adaptssimple
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have adaptedperfect
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has adaptedperfect
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am adaptingprogressive
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are adaptingprogressive
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is adaptingprogressive
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have been adaptingperfect progressive
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has been adaptingperfect progressive
Past
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adaptedsimple
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had adaptedperfect
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was adaptingprogressive
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were adaptingprogressive
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had been adaptingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of adapt
First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin adaptāre “to fit, adjust,” perhaps via French adapter; see ad-, apt
Explanation
Say you move to a country where everyone cooks with lots of hot peppers. At first the food scalds your tongue, but over time you adapt — you change in a way that allows you to deal with the new circumstances. Adapt comes from the ancient word ap, which means "take" or "grasp." Ap is even older than Latin — it comes from a lost language that was spoken by the common ancestors of modern-day Indians and Europeans and has since been reconstructed by linguists, who named it the Proto-Indo-European language, or PIE. So what does adapt have to do with grasp? If you adapt to, say, a new country, it's as though you're grabbing hold of its strange, slippery customs.
Vocabulary lists containing adapt
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 2
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List 4
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The New SAT: The Language of the Test
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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.
See Examples For:
“We must apply and adapt all available tools and capabilities to the realities we face today,” said Army Col.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
Instead, they depend heavily on neighboring cells that help them adapt, grow and withstand therapy.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026
"As new data gets fed in, they learn, they adapt, they drift."
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
“In that sense, the meow holds the legacy of thousands of years of evolutionary change in cats to adapt to life with humans.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
How might you adapt some of these to a language arts lesson?
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Haydn Parry: It will be interesting to see how wide receiver Carnell Tate, fourth overall pick by Tennessee, adapts among the big boys.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
L.A. theater director Bart DeLorenzo adapts and directs a new version of Ibsen’s savagely timely ‘Enemy of the People’ at the Odyssey Theatre.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
Or, if you prefer superheroes: HBO’s new show adapts DC’s Green Lantern comics, but the series offers more than just your typical superhero fare.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
"This knowledge can help to better understand and recognize mental health problems in mothers. It is important that we understand how the brain adapts to motherhood."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
Against these carcinogens which his own activities had created man had no protection, for even as his biological heritage has evolved slowly, so it adapts slowly to new conditions.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
“And we adapted to them because they became a strong economic generator for our area.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
It’s fitting that this book, which presents the afterlife as a play of voices, has been adapted as an opera.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
It is, says Colen, a precise but flexible process which can be almost endlessly adapted.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
“I feel like I picked things up and adapted to the team pretty fast,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
They also adapted “new” tactics for wilderness warfare to support their overall goal of taking over the homelands of the Indigenous peoples.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“I don’t feel like there was any time period where I felt like I needed to start adapting or needed to build anything up.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
My colleague Venessa Wong wrote about how young people are adapting to an economy that is very different from the one their parents came of age in.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
A University of Michigan study suggests that, instead of adapting primarily to climate pressures, some plants may be evolving traits that help them attract pollinators.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
In North America, Volkswagen will focus on its most profitable segments and, in China, the company is adapting to what it called revised expectations for overall growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
It’s too dark, and my eyes are having trouble adapting.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
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.
