Adapt vs Conform - What's the difference?
adapt | conform |
To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit; to proportion.
To fit by alteration; to modify or remodel for a different purpose; to adjust: as, to adapt a story or a foreign play for the stage; to adapt an old machine to a new manufacture.
To make by altering or fitting something else; to produce by change of form or character: as, to bring out a play adapted from the French; a word of an adapted form.
To change oneself so as to be adapted.
(intransitive, of persons, often followed by to) To act in accordance with expectations; to behave in the manner of others, especially as a result of social pressure.
* 1822 , , Peveril of the Peak , ch. 1:
* 1839 , , The Voyage of the Beagle , ch. 4:
To be in accordance with a set of specifications or regulations, or with a policy or guideline.
* 1919 , , The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit , ch. 11:
* 2006 22 Dec., "
To make similar in form or nature; to make suitable for a purpose; to adapt.
* , "Vanbrugh's House" in The Poems of Jonathan Swift (1910 edition):
* 1836 , , Nature , ch. 6:
Conform is a synonym of adapt.
In transitive terms the difference between adapt and conform
is that adapt is to make by altering or fitting something else; to produce by change of form or character: as, to bring out a play adapted from the French; a word of an adapted form while conform is to make similar in form or nature; to make suitable for a purpose; to adapt.As an adjective adapt
is adapted; fit; suited; suitable.adapt
English
Verb
(en verb)- They could not adapt to the new climate and so perished.
Derived terms
* adaptable * adaptation * adaptative * adapter * adaption * adaptitude * adaptly * adaptness * adaptorReferences
*conform
English
Verb
(en verb)- [H]e had a dispensation for conforming in outward observances to the Protestant faith.
- [B]y conforming to the dress and habits of the Gauchos, he has obtained an unbounded popularity in the country.
- In height and breadth it conformed to the prescribed measurements laid down by the rules of the contest.
Judge Cuts Amount of Vioxx Award," New York Times (retrieved 7 June 2011):
- A judge in a Texas widow’s lawsuit over the Merck drug Vioxx reduced a $32 million jury award to about $7.75 million on Thursday so that it conformed to state law.
- There is a worm by Phoebus bred,
- By leaves of mulberry is fed,
- Which unprovided where to dwell,
- Conforms itself to weave a cell.
- The sensual man conforms' thoughts to things; the poet ' conforms things to his thoughts.
