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adaption - 3 dictionary results

ad⋅ap⋅ta⋅tion

  [ad-uhp-tey-shuhn]
Use adaption in a Sentence
–noun
1. the act of adapting.
2. the state of being adapted; adjustment.
3. something produced by adapting: an adaptation of a play for television.
4. Biology.
a. any alteration in the structure or function of an organism or any of its parts that results from natural selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its environment.
b. a form or structure modified to fit a changed environment.
c. the ability of a species to survive in a particular ecological niche, esp. because of alterations of form or behavior brought about through natural selection.
5. Physiology. the decrease in response of sensory receptor organs, as those of vision, touch, temperature, olfaction, audition, and pain, to changed, constantly applied, environmental conditions.
6. Ophthalmology. the regulating by the pupil of the quantity of light entering the eye.
7. Also, a⋅dap⋅tion  [uh-dap-shuhn] . Sociology. a slow, usually unconscious modification of individual and social activity in adjustment to cultural surroundings.
Origin:
1600–10; < ML adaptātiōn- (s. of adaptātiō), equiv. to L adaptāt(us) (ptp. of adaptāre to adapt; see -ate 1 ) + -iōn- -ion

Related forms:
ad⋅ap⋅ta⋅tion⋅al, adjective
ad⋅ap⋅ta⋅tion⋅al⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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a·dap·tion   (ə-dāp'shən)   
n.  Adaptation.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Adaption

A*dap"tion\, n. Adaptation. --Cheyne.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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