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.

Longtime viewers will remember that during the first celebrity season, Phaedra Parks — an all-star Traitor and an early adopter of self-preservation tactics — frequently prioritized securing salmon at breakfast, sometimes while other contestants were still mourning the freshly murdered.

From Salon

He was an early adopter of every musical tool—including the Moog synthesizer—that he could get his hands on.

From The Wall Street Journal

As an “SCTV” early adopter, O’Hara was first attractive to me because she was funny, but she was also beautiful — a beauty she could subvert by a subtle or broad rearrangement of her features.

From Los Angeles Times

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

Japan was an early adopter of nuclear power - before 2011, nuclear accounted for nearly 30% of its electricity and the country planned to get that up to 50% by 2030.

From BBC

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