Other forms: adaptations
An adaptation is a version of something remade to fit somewhere new. The film of a novel, a play cut down for radio, a recipe rewritten for a smaller oven and half the ingredients.
Biology gives the word its other big life: an adaptation is a feature that has developed over many generations because it helps a creature survive — a camel's hump, a moth the colour of bark, the long neck of a giraffe. A third use is plainer and everyday: adaptations to a house so a wheelchair user can get around it, a keyboard adapted for one hand. The verb is adapt, and adaptation is the noun of both the process and the result. You will see adaption written now and then; adaptation is the standard form. Note it takes OF for the source: an adaptation of the book, not from it.
1nounadaptationA film, play or programme made from a book or other original work.~58%
“The television adaptation cut two whole characters out of the novel.”
2nounprocessThe process of changing something so that it works in a new situation.~34%
“Moving to the night shift took months of adaptation.”
3nounbiologyIn biology, a feature that has developed over generations because it helps a species survive.~6%
“Thick fur is an adaptation to the cold, not a fashion choice.”
4nounchangeA change made to a building, tool or method so that a disabled person can use it.~2%
“The council paid for adaptations to the bathroom and a ramp at the front door.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 17 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
adaptation is a reworked version.
Adaptation came to English from French, which had it from Medieval Latin adaptātiō, from the Latin verb adaptō — to fit, to adjust, to modify. Fitting is the whole idea. An adaptation is never a copy; it is a thing reshaped until it sits properly in its new place.
French
adaptation
English, today
adaptation
Borrowed from French adaptation. From French adaptation, from Medieval Latin adaptātiō, from Latin adaptō (“to fit, adjust, modify; to adapt, fit or adjust to”); see adapt. Equivalent to adapt + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA