adaptive

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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World English Dictionary

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

Adaptive radiation is a process in which many species develop to fill a variety

of different roles in the environment.

But the impulse behind it will not go away because, progressive or not, it is

certainly adaptive.

But in this unusual case of adaptive ecology, the human visitors may be helping

the fish more than themselves.

In other words, psychological impulses which were inconvenient in one domain

were necessary and adaptive on others.

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Matching Quote

"The shift from the perception of the child as innocent to the perception of the child as competent has greatly increased the demands on contemporary children for maturity, for participating in competitive sports, for early academic achievement, and for protecting themselves against adults who might do them harm. While children might be able to cope with any one of those demands taken singly, taken together they often exceed children's adaptive capacity."

-David Elkind

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