Adaptation

How to spell adaptation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce adaptation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does adaptation mean?

1. nounThe process of changing or being changed to suit new conditions or a different purpose.
2. nounA feature or process by which a living thing becomes better suited to its environment.
3. nounA film, play, or other work reworked from an existing book or story.

Adaptation in a sentence

• The move abroad required a long period of adaptation to the local customs.

• The camel's hump is a striking adaptation to life in the desert.

• The television adaptation of the novel won several awards.

• Successful adaptation to the new software took the whole team several weeks.

• Thick fur is an adaptation that helps the fox survive harsh winters.

• Critics praised the stage adaptation for staying faithful to the original.

Where does adaptation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb adaptare, meaning 'to fit one thing to another', which was formed from the prefix ad- ('to') and aptare ('to fit'), itself built on the adjective aptus ('fitted' or 'suitable'). The same aptus root gives English the words 'apt', 'aptitude', and 'inept', so the underlying idea is always one of suitability and good fit. English took 'adaptation' in the seventeenth century, partly through French adaptation, originally to describe the act of making something suit a new purpose. From the nineteenth century onward biologists adopted it for the way living things become better suited to their surroundings, and the word also came to name a book or play reworked for film or stage. A useful spelling note: the noun keeps the full 'adapt' plus '-ation', which is why the careful form is adaptation rather than the clipped 'adaption' that many writers slip into.

How the word is built

• ad- (to)
• apt (fitted, suitable)
• -ation (noun of action or result)