Methods and apparatuses for adapting a bandwidth of a terminal in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes transmitting, to a base station (BS), information about bandwidth adaptation capability of the terminal, receiving, from the BS, a bandwidth adaptation command for requesting adaptation to a bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth adaptation capability of the terminal, and adapting the bandwidth of the terminal in at least one symbol location in a unit time period of a subframe, based on the received bandwidth adaptation command.