adaptability

English

Etymology

From adaptable +‎ -ity or adapt +‎ -ability.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ədæptəˈbɪlɪti/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada, General Australian) IPA^(key): /əˌdæptəˈbɪləti/, [əˌdæp.təˈbɪl.ə.ɾi]

  • Audio (Canada):

    (file)

Noun

adaptability (countable and uncountable, plural adaptabilities)

1. The quality of being adaptable; a quality that renders adaptable.

   Synonym: adaptableness

   Coordinate terms: adaptiveness, adaptivity

   • 2020 June 30, Spencer Wright, “My fraternity taught me the secret to surviving a pandemic”, in CNN‎:

     But the real test of my adaptability came senior year, when I became chapter president of DKA.

3. (biology) Variability in respect to, or under the influence of, external conditions; susceptibility of an organism to that variation whereby it becomes suited to or fitted for its conditions of environment; the capacity of an organism to be modified by circumstances.
   • 2023 September 26, Hafsa Khalil, “Electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand”, in CNN‎:

     Typically, tarantulas are either terrestrial or arboreal, but the Chilobrachys natanicharum can live in both enivronments^[sic], the researchers said, demonstrating its adaptability.

Derived terms

• maladaptability
• pathoadaptability
• unadaptability

Related terms

• adapt
• adaptable
• adaptableness
• adaptably
• adaptation
• adaptational
• adaptative
• adaptatively
• adaptativeness
• adaptedness
• adapter
• adaption
• adaptional
• adaptitude
• adaptive
• adaptively
• adaptly
• adaptness
• adaptorial

Translations

quality of being adaptable; a quality that renders adaptable

Asturian: adautabilidá f Bulgarian: приспособи́мост (bg) f (prisposobímost), адапти́вност f (adaptívnost) Catalan: adaptabilitat f Chinese: Mandarin: 適應性 / 适应性 (zh) (shìyìngxìng) Czech: přizpůsobivost f Finnish: sopeutuvuus (fi), sopeutumiskyky French: adaptabilité (fr) Galician: adaptabilidade (gl) f German: Anpassungsfähigkeit (de) f Hindi: अनुकूलन क्षमता (anukūlan kṣamtā) Italian: adattabilità f Manx: so-lhoobaght f Nepali: अनुकूलनशीलता (anukūlanśīlatā) Polish: adaptowalność f Portuguese: adaptabilidade (pt) f, flexibilidade (pt) f Romanian: adaptabilitate (ro) f Russian: адапти́вность (ru) f (adaptívnostʹ), приспособля́емость (ru) f (prisposobljájemostʹ) Spanish: adaptabilidad (es) f, flexibilidad (es) f

variability in respect to, or under the influence of, external conditions

Bulgarian: изменчи́вост (bg) f (izmenčívost) Chinese: Mandarin: 可塑性 (zh) (kěsùxìng) Finnish: sopeutuvuus (fi) Polish: adaptabilność (pl) f, przystosowawczość (pl) f Romanian: adaptabilitate (ro) f Russian: адапти́вность (ru) f (adaptívnostʹ), приспособля́емость (ru) f (prisposobljájemostʹ)

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “adaptability”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.