An adaptive decoding apparatus and a method of adaptive decoding are disclosed. The adaptive decoding apparatus configuring a decoding process adaptively based on an encoding format of inputted data includes: a separating part configured to separate decoding module configuration information and encoded data from inputted data received from an outside and to output the decoding module configuration information and the encoded data; a decoding module storing part configured to store a plurality of decoding modules, the decoding modules being configured to perform a predetermined unit of partial decoding process; a decoding module configuration information analyzing part configured to analyze the encoded data according to the decoding module configuration information and to generate and output syntax parsing control information and connection control information; and a decode executing part configured to form a reconfigured decoder by loading and connecting target decoding modules from the decoding module storing part by use of the connection control information and to decode the encoded data according to the syntax parsing control information by use of the reconfigured decoder. Accordingly, the decoding process can be adaptively configured for decoding, based on the encoding format of the inputted data.