adapt
verb · adjective
Simple meaning
To change so you fit a new situation.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhdaptSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈdæpt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose
“Adapt our native cuisine to the available food resources of the new country.”
transitive
To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit.
transitive
To make by altering or fitting something else; to produce by change of form or character.
intransitive
To make oneself comfortable to a new thing.
transitive
To fit by alteration; to modify or remodel for a different purpose; to adjust.
Adapt or conform oneself to new or different conditions
adjective
Adapted; fit; suited; suitable; apt.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose
This meaning of 'adapt' focuses on changing something specifically for a new use or condition. It’s similar to 'modify' but usually implies a more significant alteration to make it suitable.
“Adapt our native cuisine to the available food resources of the new country.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where you'll really hear it
DIY forums
“I plan to adapt the old bicycle frame into an electric bike.”
Business meetings
“We must adapt our strategies to meet changing market demands.”
Science class
“Some animals adapt their bodies to survive in harsh climates.”
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use adapt
- “Adapt our native cuisine to the available food resources of the new country.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A musician who adapts a composition for particular voices or instruments or for another style of performance.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Device that enables something to be used in a way different from that for which it was intended or makes different pieces of apparatus compatible.
A written work (as a novel) that has been recast in a new form.
Having a capacity for adaptation.
Capable of adapting (of becoming or being made suitable) to a particular situation or use.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A program that can change its performance in response to its environment.
An electronic device that converts information in memory to video output to a display.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The process of adjusting the eyes to low levels of illumination.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.