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apt

[apt]

Example Sentences Origin

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adjective

inclined; disposed; given; prone: too apt to slander others.

likely: Am I apt to find him at home?

unusually intelligent; able to learn quickly and easily: an apt pupil.

suited to the purpose or occasion; appropriate: an apt metaphor; a few apt remarks on world peace.

Archaic. prepared; ready; willing.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English (< Anglo-French ) < Latin aptus fastened, fitted, fitting, appropriate, equivalent to ap- fasten, attach + -tus past participle suffix

Related forms

apt·ly, adverb

apt·ness, noun

o·ver·apt, adjective

o·ver·apt·ly, adverb

o·ver·apt·ness, noun

Can be confused: apt, likely (see synonym note at the current entry; see usage note at likely).

Synonyms
1. liable. 2. See likely. 3. clever, bright; adaptable; handy, adroit, dexterous, skillful. 4. fitting, meet, germane, felicitous. Apt, pertinent, relevant all refer to something suitable or fitting. Apt means to the point and particularly appropriate: an apt comment. Pertinent means pertaining to the matter in hand: a pertinent remark. Relevant means directly related to and important to the subject: a relevant opinion.

Usage note
Some usage guides insist that apt followed by an infinitive can or should be used to mean only “inclined, disposed”: He is apt to ignore matters he regards as unimportant. In fact, apt is standard in all varieties of speech and writing as a synonym for likely in contexts that suggest probability without any implication of a natural disposition toward: Hostilities are apt to break out if the confrontation is not soon resolved. She is apt to arrive almost any time now. EXPANDSee also liable.

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Apt is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Example Sentences

The query was prescient, the image apt.

The cost is apt to be high, regardless.

He's just as apt to tear up as blow up.

EXPAND

Dictionary.com Unabridged

plural apts.

apartment.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To apt

Collins

World English Dictionary

apt (æpt)

—*adj*
1.	suitable for the circumstance or purpose; appropriate
2.	(postpositive; foll by an infinitive) having a tendency (to behave as specified)
3.	having the ability to learn and understand easily; clever (esp in the phrase an apt pupil)

[C14: from Latin aptus fitting, suitable, from apere to fasten]

'aptly

—*adv*

'aptness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

apt

late 14c., "suited, fitted, adapted," from L. aptus "fit, suited," pp. of *apere "to attach, join, tie to," from PIE base *ap- "to grasp, take, reach" (cf. Skt. apnoti "he reaches," L. apisci "to reach after, attain," Hitt. epmi "I seize"). Elliptical sense of "becoming, appropriate" is from 1560s; sense

EXPAND

of "habitually liable" is from 1520s.

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