adaptability

adapt (əˈdæpt)

—vb
1.	(often foll by to) to adjust (someone or something, esp oneself) to different conditions, a new environment, etc
2.	(tr) to fit, change, or modify to suit a new or different purpose: to adapt a play for use in schools

[C17: from Latin adaptāre, from ad- to + aptāre to fit, from aptusapt]

a'daptable

—*adj*

adapta'bility

—n

a'daptableness

—n

a'daptive

—*adj*

adapt (əˈdæpt)

—vb
1.	(often foll by to) to adjust (someone or something, esp oneself) to different conditions, a new environment, etc
2.	(tr) to fit, change, or modify to suit a new or different purpose: to adapt a play for use in schools

[C17: from Latin adaptāre, from ad- to + aptāre to fit, from aptusapt]

a'daptable

—*adj*

adapta'bility

—n

a'daptableness

—n

a'daptive

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Example sentences

The farmer who is inventive enough to build a mill is competent to see quickly

the adaptability of certain parts to his ideas.

Your typical sense of adaptability gets special appreciation now.

He has taken the varieties farmers selected for their adaptability and

determined which of them promise the best yield.

The plasticity and adaptability of the human mind beggars belief.

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Related Words

adaptable mutable sign primate

primate savoir-faire

Matching Quote

"The photographic enthusiast likes to lure us into a darkened room in order to display his slides on a silver screen. Aided by the adaptability of the eye and by the borrowed light from the intense projector bulb, he can achieve those relationships in brightness that will make us dutifully admire the wonderful autumn tints he photographed on his latest trip. As soon as we look at a print of these photographs by day, the light seems to go out of them. It is one of the miracles of art that the same does not happen there. The paintings in our galleries are seen one day in bright sunshine and another day in the dim light of a rainy afternoon, yet they remain the same paintings, ever faithful, ever convincing. To a marvelous extent they carry their own light within. For their truth is not that of a perfect replica, it is the truth of art."

-E.H. Gombrich

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