Adept, adapt, or adopt?

Shin Chen from China asked for help with the words adept, adapt, and adopt.

These three words look and sound almost exactly alike, which is why they are so confusing.

The only difference is the vowel in the middle. If you want to hear the differences in pronunciation, go to the Learner's Dictionary entries for these words, and click on the red speaker icons.

In other ways, these words are not similar. Adept is an adjective, and the other two are verbs. And their meanings are different. Adept means "good at doing something." Adapt means "to change for a new situation." Adopt usually means "to take something legally as your own." They are described in more detail below.

I hope this helps.

adept

Adept is an adjective that means "good at doing something difficult." It is often used with at, as shown in these example sentences:

• She's adept at fixing flaws in the system.
• He was adept at using computers.

adapt

Adapt is a verb that means "to change for a new situation or purpose." Adapt can be transitive (with an object) or intransitive (no object) as shown in the example sentences below.

• She has adapted to college life.
• The teachers adapted the curriculum so that students at all levels could benefit from it. 
•  The movie was adapted from the book of the same title.

adopt

Adopt is also a verb, and it means “to legally take something as your own,” or "to begin to use something." It is always transitive, as shown in the example sentences below. 

• Paula was adopted as an infant. (Paula is the understood object of adopted.)
  
• Our boss has recently adopted a friendlier manner. (A friendlier manner is the object of adopted.)
  
• The assembly adopted a new constitution. (A new constitution is the object of adopted.)