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
   • Lifestyle adaptation arises because people inevitably encounter a gap between the style of life they desire and the actual resources they control.2015, Jon M. Hawes, Proceedings of the 1989 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference, Springer, →ISBN, page 70
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
7. (countable) An artistic work that has been adapted from a different medium.
   • 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.1910, Frederick Lawton, Balzac
8. The means by which social groups adapt to different social and physical environments.