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early adopter

American

[ur-lee uh-dop-ter] / ˈɜr li əˈdɒp tər /

noun

a person who uses a new product or technology before it becomes widely known or used.

early adopter British

noun

one of the first people or organizations to make use of a new technology

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of early adopter

First recorded in 1845–50

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Gil had been an early adopter of e-commerce after his old store folded, and he made a nice living selling books on eBay and Amazon.

From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026

People who don’t live near one of these early adopter cities might not realize how common the sight of driverless cars has become.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

Cornell was an early adopter of mainframes and his professor mentors were moving from punch cards to mainframe batch processing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

The government has also launched an "early adopter" scheme for 750 schools, which will be given funding to offer free breakfast clubs lasting 30 minutes.

From BBC • Nov. 17, 2025

Henrich, an early adopter of daguerreotype cameras, shoots photographs of women posing with skulls like he’s paving the way for Del Toro’s whole filmography.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2025

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023