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Adaptive vs Flexible - What's the difference?

adaptive | flexible |

As adjectives the difference between adaptive and flexible

is that adaptive is of, pertaining to, characterized by or showing adaptation; making or made fit or suitable while flexible is capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned, bowed, or twisted, without breaking; pliable; not stiff or brittle.

As a noun flexible is

something that is flexible.

adaptive

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of, pertaining to, characterized by or showing adaptation; making or made fit or suitable.
  • * {{quote-book, author=Charles Darwin, title=, year=1859
    • , passage=The real affinities of all organic beings, in contradistinction to their adaptive resemblances, are due to inheritance or community of descent.}}
  • * {{quote-book, author=C. Lloyd Morgan, title=, year=1896
    • , passage=That variation of germinal origin is a fact in organic nature is admitted on all hands, and that some variations are adaptive is also unquestioned.}}
  • Capable of being adapted or of adapting; susceptible of or undergoing accordant change.
  • (psychology) Of a trait: that helps an individual to function well in society.

    • Synonyms

    * (capable of being adapted) adaptable * adaptative

    Derived terms

    (Derived terms) * adaptively * adaptiveness * adaptivity * adaptive beamformer * adaptive behaviour * adaptive bridge * adaptive clothing * adaptive coding * adaptive communications * adaptive compression * adaptive enzyme * adaptive equalization * adaptive expectations * adaptive filter * adaptive hypertrophy * adaptive management * adaptive modulation * adaptive optics * adaptive predictive coding * adaptive radiation * adaptive resonance * adaptive reuse * adaptive routing * adaptive switching * adaptive system * adaptive technology * adaptive value * adaptive zone

    Related terms

    * adapt * adaptable * adaptative * adaptly * adaptorial

    References

    * ----

    flexible

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned, bowed, or twisted, without breaking; pliable; not stiff or brittle.
    • When the splitting wind Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks. -
  • Willing or ready to yield to the influence of others; not invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable; ductile; easy and compliant; wavering.
    • Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people. - .
    Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible . -
  • Capable or being adapted or molded; plastic,; as, a flexible language.
    • This was a principle more flexible to their purpose. -Rogers.

    Synonyms

    * bendsome * ductile * inconstant * manageable * obsequious * pliant * pliable * supple * tractable * wavering

    Derived terms

    * flexibly * flexibleness

    Related terms

    * flexibility * inflexible

    See also

    * foldable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, engineering, and, manufacturing) Something that is flexible.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2009, date=August 19, author=Terry McCrann, title=Win-win deal for the times, work=Herald Sun citation
    • , passage=Alcan is mostly flexibles -- and so it boosts Amcor's flexible packaging business to a globally significant $7 billion one. }}

    References

    * * (flexible) * (flexibility) ----