adjust

English

Etymology

From Middle English ajusten, borrowed from Middle French adjuster, or Old French, from Latin ad (“to, up to, towards”) + iustus (“correct, proper, exact”); Equivalent to ad- +‎ just. Probably influenced in sense by Old French ajouster (cf. modern ajouter), from Vulgar Latin *adiuxtāre, from Latin iuxta. The Middle English originally meant "to correct, remedy" in the late 14th century, and was reborrowed from Middle French in the early 17th century. According to another view on the etymology, the word was actually derived from Old French ajouster and then supposedly later influenced by folk etymology from Latin iustus.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /əˈd͡ʒʌst/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /əˈd͡ʒast/
• Rhymes: -ʌst

Verb

adjust (third-person singular simple present adjusts, present participle adjusting, simple past and past participle adjusted)

1. (transitive) To modify.

   Morimoto's recipes are adjusted to suit the American palate.

   • 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.

2. (transitive) To improve or rectify.

   He adjusted his initial conclusion to reflect the new data.

   • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 11:

     But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.

3. (transitive) To settle an insurance claim.
4. (intransitive) To change to fit circumstances.

   Most immigrants adjust quickly to a new community.

   She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Conjugation

Conjugation of adjust

infinitive	(to) adjust
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	adjust	adjusted
2nd-person singular	adjust, adjustest†	adjusted, adjustedst†
3rd-person singular	adjusts, adjusteth†	adjusted
plural	adjust
subjunctive	adjust	adjusted
imperative	adjust	—
participles	adjusting	adjusted

^†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

• (to modify something): change, edit, modify, set

Derived terms

• adjustability
• adjustable
• adjustage
• adjuster
• adjusting entry
• adjustive
• adjustment
• adjustor
• autoadjust
• coadjust
• disadjust
• maladjust
• misadjust
• nonadjusting
• overadjust
• preadjust
• quality-adjusted life year
• readjust
• self-adjusting
• underadjust
• well-adjusted

 

Descendants

• → Japanese: アジャスト (ajasuto)

Translations

to modify

• Bulgarian: нагласявам (bg) (naglasjavam), приспособявам (bg) (prisposobjavam)
• Catalan: ajustar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 調整／调整 (zh) (tiáozhěng)

• Czech: upravit (cs)
• Dutch: aanpassen (nl), verstellen (nl)
• Esperanto: adapti (eo), akomodi (eo)
• Finnish: mukauttaa (fi), muuttaa (fi), muokata (fi), sopeuttaa (fi)
• French: ajuster (fr)
• German: anpassen (de), abstimmen (de), ausrichten (de), justieren (de), geringfügig ändern, leicht abändern, etwas verstellen
• Greek: ρυθμίζω (el) (rythmízo)
• Hungarian: beállít (hu), igazít (hu), hozzáigazít (hu), illeszt (hu), hozzáilleszt (hu)
• Ido: ajustar (io)
• Italian: adattare (it), adeguare (it), regolare (it)
• Japanese: 調整する (ja) (ちょうせいする, chōsei suru)
• Kazakh: реттеу (retteu)
• Latin: accommodō (la), adapto
• Manx: kiartee, cochiartee
• Maori: whakarerekē
• Norwegian: justere (no), stille (no)
• Polish: dostosowywać (pl), dostosować (pl)
• Portuguese: ajustar (pt)
• Romanian: ajusta (ro), potrivi (ro), regla (ro)
• Russian: регули́ровать (ru) impf (regulírovatʹ), отрегули́ровать (ru) pf (otregulírovatʹ), настра́ивать (ru) impf (nastráivatʹ), настро́ить (ru) pf (nastróitʹ)
• Spanish: ajustar (es), arreglar (es), regular (es), entallar (es), adecuar (es), amoldar (es), compaginar (es)
• Swedish: anpassa (sv), avpassa (sv), justera (sv), ställa in (sv), inställa (sv)
• Tibetan: བཅས་བཅོས་བྱེད (bcas bcos byed)
• Vietnamese: điều chỉnh (vi)
• Welsh: addasu (cy)

to improve or rectify

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: оправям (bg) (opravjam)
• Dutch: aanpassen (nl), herzien (nl), verbeteren (nl)
• Esperanto: alĝustigi, ĝustigi
• Finnish: muuttaa (fi)
• French: ajuster (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: berichtigen (de), nachbessern (de)
• Greek: προσαρμόζω (el) (prosarmózo)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: kiigazít (hu), korrigál (hu), helyesbít (hu)
• Irish: ceartaigh
• Italian: regolare (it)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Manx: kiartee
• Norwegian: justere (no), korrigere (no)
• Polish: poprawić (pl)
• Portuguese: ajustar (pt)
• Romanian: ajusta (ro)
• Russian: подстра́ивать (ru) impf (podstráivatʹ), подстро́ить (ru) pf (podstróitʹ)
• Spanish: ajustar (es), calibrar (es), aforar (es)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: བཅས་བཅོས་བྱེད (bcas bcos byed)

to settle an insurance claim

• Finnish: korvata (fi)
• Greek: διευθετώ (el) (diefthetó)
• Hungarian: elintéz (hu), rendez (hu)

to change to fit circumstances

• Bulgarian: нагаждам (bg) (nagaždam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 適應／适应 (zh) (shìyǐng)

• Esperanto: akomodiĝi, adaptiĝi
• Finnish: sopeutua (fi)
• German: anpassen (de) (reflexive), einfügen (de) (reflexive), einleben (de) (reflexive), eingewöhnen (de) (reflexive)
• Hungarian: alkalmazkodik (hu)
• Portuguese: enquadrar (pt)
• Spanish: adaptar (es)
• Tibetan: སྙོམ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད (snyom sgrig byed)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} ajuster (fr)
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 調節する (chōsetsu suru)
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 조정하다 (ko) (jojeonghada)
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} nastaviti
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} điều chỉnh (vi), ^{(please verify)} chỉnh lại , ^{(please verify)} sửa (vi)

Further reading

• Adjustment on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• udjats