adeptness

[ uh-dept-nis ]

noun

1. the quality or fact of being highly skilled or expert at something; proficiency:

   Thanks to the teacher’s adeptness at explaining the intricacies of calculus, her students quickly grasped even the more arcane concepts.

Other Words From

• non·a·dept·ness noun
• un·a·dept·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of adeptness¹

adept ( def ) + -ness ( def )

Example Sentences

A crafty player, Muchova has been compared to Justine Henin and Roger Federer for her adeptness around the court.

From BBC

“It is similar to imprisoning tigers together. They will prey on one another and will also attempt to escape due to their high intelligence and adeptness,” said Jaime Posada, a spokesperson for the protest called by various animal welfare organizations.

From Seattle Times

My body was then sixty-five years old, but my brain—in a scientific achievement of incredible adeptness—had stopped at the age of thirty-eight or so, and with wonderful abilities of delusion convinced me that this would all work.

From Literature

This linguistic adeptness causes tension for both authors, who resent that their American upbringings confined them to English — what Ng calls the “barbarian’s language” and Wong “the language of the colonizer.”

From New York Times

But DiCaprio, Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, another co-star, are acting up a storm, and Zwick shows his usual adeptness at staging big action sequences.

From New York Times