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Glite Dictionary
to attune (skills)

to attune (skills)

6.5
To change your skills so they fit a job or task
  • phrasal verb
  • /əˈtun/
translation icon : ajustar
  • Coaches help athletes attune their skills for optimal performance.

Examples

  • You need to attune your skills if you want to succeed in this changing industry.

  • She spent weeks to attune her skills to the new software.

  • The mentor encouraged his students to attune their skills to the demands of the project.

  • Before the competition, she worked hard to attune her skills for the upcoming challenges.

  • To thrive in her new role, he needed to attune his skills to the expectations of management.

Synonyms

to adjust
vsto attune (skills)
321 3.0

To get used to new conditions like a new place or routine

focuses on changing specific abilities to suit a particular task
to adapt
vsto attune (skills)
150 3.0

To change your behaviour or ideas to deal with new situations

uses tailoring of abilities to fit a specific situation or task
to attune
vsto attune (skills)
14 6.4

Make someone able to notice and respond to something

aims at shaping abilities to suit a task rather than general harmony

Antonyms

to misalign
4 6.7

To put parts in the wrong position so they do not line up

How Adapted

to hone
66 4.2
to attune (skills)
6.5
to adapt
150 3.0
to adjust
317 2.7

Surface Forms

attune (skills) infinitive
attuned (skills) past
attuned (skills) past participle
attuning (skills) present participle
attunes (skills) third person singular

Morphology

attune + (skills)

The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'attune' (to adjust or harmonize) with 'skills' (abilities): it literally means to adjust one's abilities for a situation. This is a regular verb + object composition found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the intended sense.

Etymology

Attune your skills comes from the idea of tuning a musical instrument. Like a player who 'tunes' strings to match other instruments, you change your skills so they 'fit' a task or situation, so the phrase means 'to adjust your abilities'.