adaptive
US/əˈdæp.tɪv/
adaptive adjective: of, pertaining to, characterized by or showing adaptation; making or made fit or suitable.
Adjective
adaptive (comparative more adaptive, superlative most adaptive)
- Of, pertaining to, characterized by or showing adaptation; making or made fit or suitable.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it issued a final rule allowing what’s called “adaptive driving beam headlights” on new vehicles. It will go into effect when published in the Federal Register in the next few days.
- The real affinities of all organic beings, in contradistinction to their adaptive resemblances, are due to inheritance or community of descent.1859, Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
- Capable of being adapted or of adapting; susceptible of or undergoing accordant change.
- Synonyms:
- adaptable
- Of a trait: that helps an organism to function well in its environment.
- Of a trait: that helps a person to function well in society.
adaptive meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian
adaptive in Tamil
- தகவமைப்பு, தகவமைவு, மாற்றியமைக்கத்தக்க
adaptive in Urdu
- تطبیقی, مطابقت پذیر
adaptive in Malay
- of, pertaining to, characterized by or showing adaptation; making or made fit or suitable
- mudah suai
adaptive in Indonesian
- of, pertaining to, characterized by or showing adaptation; making or made fit or suitable
- adaptif
More languagesFewer languages
- adaptive in Persian
- سازگار sâzgâr
Examples of adaptive in a sentence
- The adaptive optical systems in modern astronomical telescopes compensate for atmospheric distortion by using deformable mirrors.
- Cognitive biases can be adaptive when they speed decision-making.
- Adaptive thermogenesis is when your metabolism adapts to your energy needs (study).
Synonyms of adaptive
Antonyms
Forms of adaptive
| comparative | more adaptive |
|---|---|
| superlative | most adaptive |
Origin of adaptive
From adapt + -ive.
Words formed from adaptive
- adaptive beamformer
- adaptive behaviour
- adaptive bridge
- adaptive clothing
- adaptive coding
- adaptive communications
- adaptive compression
- adaptive control
- adaptive cruise control
- adaptive enzyme
- adaptive equalization
- adaptive expectations
- adaptive filter
- adaptive hypertrophy
- adaptive immune system
- adaptive immunity
- adaptive intelligence
- adaptive learning
- adaptively
- adaptive management
- adaptive modulation
- adaptiveness
- adaptive optics
- adaptive predictive coding
- adaptive radiation
- adaptive resonance
- adaptive reuse
- adaptive routing
- adaptive switching
- adaptive system
- adaptive technology
- adaptive tile refresh
- adaptive value
- adaptive zone
- adaptivity
- coadaptive
- counteradaptive
- disadaptive
- idioadaptive
- inadaptive
- mechanoadaptive
- multiadaptive
- neuroadaptive
- osmoadaptive
- pathoadaptive
- photoadaptive
- postadaptive
- preadaptive
- proadaptive
- radioadaptive
- seroadaptive
- unadaptive
- viscoadaptive
Phrases with adaptive
Questions about adaptive
- What does adaptive mean?
- Adaptive means of, pertaining to, characterized by or showing adaptation; making or made fit or suitable.
- What is adaptive in Tamil?
- Adaptive in Tamil is தகவமைப்பு, தகவமைவு, மாற்றியமைக்கத்தக்க. See Adaptive meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is adaptive?
- Adaptive is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce adaptive?
- Adaptive is pronounced /əˈdæp.tɪv/ (US).
Words near adaptive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: adaptive (page history and authors); adaptive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adaptive (Urdu Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-adaptive.wav.
Cite this entry: “adaptive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/adaptive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.