This paper deals with the adaptive control of a class of continuous-time nonlinear dynamic systems preceded by an unknown dead-zone. By using a new description of a dead-zone and by exploring the properties of this dead-zone model intuitively and mathematically, a robust adaptive control scheme is developed without constructing the dead-zone inverse. The new control scheme ensures global stability of the adaptive system and achieves desired tracking precision. Simulations performed on a typical nonlinear system illustrate and clarify the validity of this approach. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.