Word.ws English Dictionary

ad.

UK/æd/

ad. is the abbreviation of adaptation.

ad. is the abbreviation of adapter.

ad. is the abbreviation of archdiocese.

ad. is the abbreviation of adverb.

ad. is the abbreviation of advertisement.

ad. is the abbreviation of adapt.

Meaning of adaptation

Noun

adaptation (countable and uncountable, plural adaptations)

  1. (uncountable) The process of adapting something or becoming adapted to a situation; adjustment, modification.
    • 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.1950 November, H. P. White, “The Furka-Oberalp Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 770
  2. (countable) A change that is made or undergone to suit a condition or environment.
    • It's staggering because these adaptations to your schedule can dramatically change your life forever.1999, Jim Meisenheimer, How to Double Your Sales Without Quadrupling Your Effort, Helbern, →ISBN, page 41
  3. (uncountable) The process of replacing a given morpheme of a source lexeme with an equivalent morpheme of the target lexeme, especially where the two morphemes are cognates.
  4. (uncountable, evolutionary theory) The process of change that an organism undergoes to be better suited to its environment.
    • 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...1911, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
    Antonyms:
    maladaptation
  5. (countable, evolutionary theory) An instance of an organism undergoing change, or the structure or behavior that is changed.
    • 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.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...
  6. (uncountable) The process of adapting an artistic work from a different medium.
    • Plays are rich and suitable sources for adaptation to film.2010, David K. Irving, Fundamentals of Film Directing, McFarland, →ISBN, page 19

See all 8 meanings of adaptation

Meaning of adapter

Noun

adapter (plural adapters)

  1. One who is capable of adapting to differing situations.
    • He was an able adapter, and could easily adjust to the differences when the company changed ownership.
  2. One who adapts a thing, e.g. a play.
    • The critic gave rave reviews to the adapter of the ancient play, who worked to give the text more relevance to the modern day.
  3. A device or application used to achieve operative compatibility between devices that otherwise are incompatible.
    • He had an adapter that let him plug his phone into the car's cigarette lighter for power.
    1. Specifically, a device that permits two or more plugs to be used at a single electrical power point.
      • The wall outlet sprouted an electrical monstrosity of adapters plugged into adapters that sparked ominously.
    2. Specifically, a device that allows one format of plug to be used with a different format of socket.
      • We bought adapters to use our three-prong plugs in the two-prong, unpolarized outlets of the old house.
    3. Specifically, an AC adapter: a device that reduces voltage and converts AC to DC to allow a battery-powered device to use mains power.
      • I lost my cellphone's adapter so I couldn't recharge it.

See all 7 meanings of adapter

Forms of ad.

Noun
pluralads.
pluralad.'s
Verb
pastform

Origin of ad.

Apocope and other processes of abbreviation.

Words that rhyme with ad.

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ad.

What is ad. the abbreviation of?
Ad. is the abbreviation of adaptation.
How do you pronounce ad.?
Ad. is pronounced /æd/ (UK).

Words near ad. in the dictionary

  1. ad-libbing
  2. ad-libs
  3. ad-man
  4. ad-men
  5. ad-seg
  6. ad.
  7. ad.'s
  8. Ada
  9. Ada County
  10. Ada from Decatur
  11. ADAA

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ad. (page history and authors); adaptation (page history and authors); adapter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “ad..” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ad.. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.