adept 1 of 2

adept

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noun

Synonym Chooser

How is the word adept distinct from other similar adjectives?

Some common synonyms of adept are expert, proficient, skilled, and skillful. While all these words mean "having great knowledge and experience in a trade or profession," adept implies special aptitude as well as proficiency.

adept at doing long division

When is it sensible to use expert instead of adept?

While in some cases nearly identical to adept, expert implies extraordinary proficiency and often connotes knowledge as well as technical skill.

expert in the evaluation of wines

When is proficient a more appropriate choice than adept?

In some situations, the words proficient and adept are roughly equivalent. However, proficient implies a thorough competence derived from training and practice.

proficient in translating foreign languages

In what contexts can skilled take the place of adept?

The words skilled and adept can be used in similar contexts, but skilled stresses mastery of technique.

a skilled surgeon

When might skillful be a better fit than adept?

The meanings of skillful and adept largely overlap; however, skillful implies individual dexterity in execution or performance.

skillful drivers

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of adept
Adjective
In keeping with the current rate of innovation, your system should become more adept and insightful over time. Karpagam Narayanan, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025 Some who hail from non-democratic countries seem especially adept at choosing their words. Andy Rose, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025
Noun
The younger Aes Sedai adept is busy learning the ways of walking in Tel’aran’rhiod, the dreamworld overlaid atop the real one and parallel to the regular, non-magical dreams most people experience. Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 27 Mar. 2025 Perhaps Sheridan’s greatest magic trick occurs on Landman, where the adept acting of Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm make the case that Thornton’s oil-field fixer and Hamm’s billionaire are the true American martyrs. Stephen Rodrick, Rolling Stone, 9 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for adept
Recent Examples of Synonyms for adept
Adjective
  • Set in 1819 Hispaniola, just prior to the Dominican Republic’s push for independence, the drama centers on an unexpected trio – a young Spanish noble, a skilled Chinese silk artisan and a Haitian soldier who’s abandoned his post.
    Anna Marie de la Fuente, Variety, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Rather, the bots are skilled at mimicking human reactions to stressful situations, responding to users in ways that often reflect racist and sexist biases.
    Patricia Marx, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Real estate experts say claiming primary residences on different mortgages at the same time is often legal and rarely prosecuted.
    Robert Faturechi, ProPublica, 6 Sep. 2025
  • Typically, a peer-review process is required where multiple experts in the field provide feedback on the analysis before a publication is possible.
    Mark Carey, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The big picture viewpoint is that there will be some LLMs that are less proficient in certain ways, and others that are more proficient in other ways.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • About 56% of CMS students were proficient on statewide exams this year — 3 percentage points better than last year.
    Rebecca Noel, Charlotte Observer, 3 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Merging with Teck will almost certainly be the master stroke in removing it from any plans by BHP to return with a fresh offer for Anglo American.
    Tim Treadgold, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Moreover, Southern bakers have been perfecting this treat for generations, and our recipe masters the most classic version, staying largely the same since its first appearances in our annual Southern Living cookbooks as early as the 1960s and 1970s.
    Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The more success rolled, the more damage done, the more skillful the hack and so on.
    Rob Wieland, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
  • Powell, skillful at opaque Fed-speak, nonetheless signaled a simulative change is likely.
    Arthur I. Cyr, Chicago Tribune, 26 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • Leading genocide scholars passed a resolution this week that declared Israel’s actions in Gaza had met the legal definition of genocide.
    Jade Walker, CNN Money, 5 Sep. 2025
  • Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meanwhile, is referred to by public scholars and media in a variety of ways that emphasize Russia or President Vladimir Putin as an aggressive antagonist.
    Esther Brito Ruiz, The Conversation, 5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Before Park came in, United had signed just two players, albeit two highly experienced Champions League individuals in Sweden’s Julia Zigiotti Olme and Fridolina Rolfo.
    Charlotte Harpur, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2025
  • But placing unfinished or untested writing in front of the eyes of other experienced and respected writers actually takes courage.
    Beverly Gologorsky September 5, Literary Hub, 5 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Jorge Luis Pacheco takes the Break room stage Saturday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. Hailing from Havana, Cuba, Pacheco is a virtuoso pianist, singer, composer, percussionist and arranger.
    Anne Gelhaus, Mercury News, 24 Aug. 2025
  • Born in East Harlem to Puerto Rican parents — and the younger brother of Charlie, another virtuoso keyboardist and bandleader — Palmieri reflected the city’s inner turmoil and avant-garde tendencies through a propulsive patchwork of jazz, Afro-Latin rhythms, funk, and psychedelia.
    Ernesto Lechner, Rolling Stone, 15 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Adept.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/adept. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

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