APT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does apt mean? 

• APT (adjective)
  The adjective APT has 4 senses:

1. (usually followed by 'to') naturally disposed toward

2. at risk of or subject to experiencing something usually unpleasant

3. mentally quick and resourceful

4. being of striking appropriateness and pertinence

  Familiarity information: APT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• APT (adjective)

Comparative: apter   
Superlative: aptest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

(usually followed by 'to') naturally disposed toward

Synonyms:

apt; disposed; given; minded; tending

Context example:

I am not minded to answer any questions

Similar:

inclined ((often followed by 'to') having a preference, disposition, or tendency)

Derivation:

aptness (a disposition to behave in a certain way)

Sense 2

Meaning:

At risk of or subject to experiencing something usually unpleasant

Synonyms:

apt; liable

Context example:

she is liable to forget

Similar:

likely (has a good chance of being the case or of coming about)

Derivation:

aptness (a disposition to behave in a certain way)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Mentally quick and resourceful

Synonyms:

apt; clever

Context example:

you are a clever man...you reason well and your wit is bold

Similar:

intelligent (having the capacity for thought and reason especially to a high degree)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Being of striking appropriateness and pertinence

Synonyms:

apposite; apt; pertinent

Context example:

an apt reply

Similar:

apropos (of an appropriate or pertinent nature)

Derivation:

aptness (appropriateness for the occasion)

 Context examples 

Dear Lizzy! Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She and Amy had had many lively skirmishes in the course of their lives, for both had quick tempers and were apt to be violent when fairly roused.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

This I could do in the beginning: soon (for I know your powers) you would be as strong and apt as myself, and would not require my help.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Apt scholar that he was, they were equally apt teachers, never allowing him to linger long in error, and enforcing their teaching with their sharp teeth.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had been apt enough to learn, and willing enough, when my mother and I had lived alone together.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Dr. Seward is loved not only by his household and his friends, but even by his patients, who, being some of them hardly in mental equilibrium, are apt to distort causes and effects.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She was an apt pupil, and soon learned to keep the course, to luff in the puffs and to cast off the sheet in an emergency.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Her poor mother now did not look so very unworthy of being Lady Bertram's sister as she was but too apt to look.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Neither shall I disown, that in speaking I am apt to fall into the voice and manner of the Houyhnhnms, and hear myself ridiculed on that account, without the least mortification.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)