We introduce a symmetric fractional-order reduction (SFOR) method to construct numerical algorithms on general nonuniform temporal meshes for semilinear fractional diffusion-wave equations. By using the novel order reduction method, the governing problem is transformed to an equivalent coupled system, where the explicit orders of time-fractional derivatives involved are all α/ 2 (1 < α< 2). The linearized L1 scheme and Alikhanov scheme are then proposed on general time meshes. Under some reasonable regularity assumptions and weak restrictions on meshes, the optimal convergence is derived for the two kinds of difference schemes by H energy method. An adaptive time stepping strategy which based on the (fast linearized) L1 and Alikhanov algorithms is designed for the semilinear diffusion-wave equations. Numerical examples are provided to confirm the accuracy and efficiency of proposed algorithms.