Adapt or adopt?
adapt is a verb meaning “To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit”; adopt is a verb meaning “To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) adopt is about 1.6 times as common as adapt.
What is the difference between adapt and adopt?
| adapt | adopt | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, adjective | verb, noun |
| Meaning | To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit To fit by alteration; to modify or remodel for a different purpose; to adjust Adapted; fit; suited; suitable; apt | To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild |
| Example | to adapt a story for the stage | A friend of mine recently adopted a Chinese baby girl found on the streets of Beijing |
| Forms | adapts, adapting, adapted | adopts, adopting, adopted |
| Pronunciation | /əˈdæpt/ | /əˈdɒpt/ /əˈdɑpt/ |
| In writing | 9.5 times per million words | 15 times per million words |
Sources: adapt and adopt in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of adapt and adopt
adapt
- 1
To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit
- 2
Adapted; fit; suited; suitable; apt
- 3
To fit by alteration; to modify or remodel for a different purpose; to adjust
to adapt a story for the stage
- 4
To make by altering or fitting something else; to produce by change of form or character
to bring out a play adapted from the French
- 5
To make oneself comfortable to a new thing
They could not adapt to the new climate and so perished
adopt
- 1
To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child
A friend of mine recently adopted a Chinese baby girl found on the streets of Beijing
- 2
informalClipping of adoptable
- 3
To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild
We're going to adopt a Dalmatian
- 4
To contribute towards the upkeep of (a child or animal), in exchange for occasional stories, pictures, etc
We adopted an elephant at the local zoo
- 5
To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility
This supermarket chain adopts several families every Yuletide, providing them with money and groceries for the holidays
- 6
To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally
He adopted a new look in order to fit in with his new workmates
- 7
To select and take or approve
to adopt the view or policy of another
- 8
slangTo beat an opponent ten times in a row
The match was not even close; the IM made amateurish blunders and ended up getting adopted
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, adapt or adopt?
adapt appears 9.5 times per million words; adopt 15 times per million words.
adapt 9.5 times per million wordsadopt 15 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search adapt vs adopt?
“adapt vs adopt” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“adopt vs adapt”, “adapt or adopt”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.