lexicow

adept

/əˈdɛpt//əˈdɛpt/·adjective
A chameleon sits dead still on its branch, one steady colour, not bothering to blend with anything. A fly wanders into the air just ahead. The eye swivels, fixes, holds — and then the tongue is simply out and back, the fly gone, the whole strike over before you quite saw it begin. Nothing in the scene changed; no surface shifted, no colour ran. The creature only took one hard, exact shot and made it look like nothing at all. Mastery is the difficulty that never shows.
|

Definition

To be adept is to do a demanding thing with effortless precision — the Latin adeptus means 'having attained', and the word keeps that sense of a skill already mastered rather than still being learned. An adept surgeon, an adept negotiator, a politician adept at reading a room: the mark of it is that the difficulty never shows. It is one letter from adapt, and forever confused with it, but the two split cleanly — adapt is changing yourself to fit conditions; adept is already performing the skill to perfection.

Examples

  • She is remarkably adept at defusing tense meetings before they boil over.
  • Adept negotiators read the room and adapt their tone within seconds.
  • Years of practice made him an adept coder, fast and almost error-free.

Collocations

adept at·highly adept·technically adept·politically adept·adept at handling

Synonyms

proficient·skilled·accomplished·adroit·deft

Antonyms

inept·clumsy·unskilled

See also

Word family

adeptly (adverb)·adeptness (noun)

In TOEFL & IELTS

Almost always followed by 'at' + a noun or -ing form ('adept at solving', 'adept at languages'). In Speaking it is a strong upgrade from 'good at'. The exam trap is the one-letter family: adept (skilled), adapt (adjust to conditions), adopt (take up) — examiners test all three. Stress the second syllable as an adjective: a-DEPT.