adaptation

• adaption (rare)

From French adaptation, from Medieval Latin adaptātiō, from Latin adaptō (“I fit, adjust, modify; I adapt, fit or adjust to”); see adapt. Equivalent to adapt +‎ -ation.

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌædæpˈteɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: ad‧ap‧ta‧tion

adaptation (countable and uncountable, plural adaptations)

1. (uncountable) The process of adapting something or becoming adapted to a situation; adjustment, modification.
   • 1950 November, H. P. White, “The Furka-Oberalp Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 770:

     To sum up, the Furka-Oberalp Railway is a good example of the adaptation of the rack-and-pinion system to a main line over mountainous terrain.

   • 2015, Jon M. Hawes, Proceedings of the 1989 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference, Springer, →ISBN, page 70:

     Lifestyle adaptation arises because people inevitably encounter a gap between the style of life they desire and the actual resources they control.

2. (countable) A change that is made or undergone to suit a condition or environment.
   • 1999, Jim Meisenheimer, How to Double Your Sales Without Quadrupling Your Effort, Helbern, →ISBN, page 41:

     It's staggering because these adaptations to your schedule can dramatically change your life forever.

3. (uncountable, evolutionary theory) The process of change that an organism undergoes to be better suited to its environment.

   Antonym: maladaptation

   • 1911, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:

     ACCLIMATIZATION, the process of adaptation by which animals and plants are gradually rendered capable of surviving and flourishing in countries remote from their original habitats, or under meteorological conditions different from those which they have usually to endure, and at first injurious to them.

4. (countable, evolutionary theory) An instance of an organism undergoing change, or the structure or behavior that is changed.
   • 1844, Robert Sears, The Guide to Knowledge, Or Repertory of Facts: Forming a Complete Library of Entertaining Information, in the Several Departments of Science, Lterature, and Art, Embellished by Several Hundred Engravings, page 465:

     This is the very method adopted, in the structure of the eye, to produce a perfect picture on the retina; it is an adaptation to the laws of light, and the property of color, in natural objects.

5. (uncountable) The process of adapting an artistic work from a different medium.
   • 2010, David K. Irving, Fundamentals of Film Directing, McFarland, →ISBN, page 19:

     Plays are rich and suitable sources for adaptation to film.

6. (countable, authorship) An artistic work that has been adapted from a different medium.
   • 1910, Frederick Lawton, Balzac:

     Having partly a bibliographic value, and partly confirming the statements above as to Balzac's influence, the following details concerning theatrical adaptations of some of his novels may serve as a supplement to this chapter.

7. (sociology) The means by which social groups adapt to different social and physical environments.

Borrowed from Medieval Latin adaptātiōnem, from Latin adaptō (“to fit, adjust, modify; to adapt, fit or adjust to”).

• IPA^(key): /a.dap.ta.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔ̃
• Homophone: adaptations

adaptation f (plural adaptations)

1. adaptation (all senses)

• adapter

• “adaptation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.