 <p>I know there is already an accepted answer for this question, but this same question was asked here:</p> <p><a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8302636/mouseadapter-which-pattern-does-it-use/8315910#8315910">MouseAdapter: which pattern does it use?</a></p> <p>See there for more deatils, but the MouseAdapter <strong>adapts</strong> the very awkaward MouseListener interface into a more usable form.</p>