adopted
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something that's adopted has been deliberately chosen. Your adopted country is the place where you choose to live, not necessarily the one in which you're born. If you describe yourself as adopted, it means that you were taken in and raised by parents who didn't give birth to you. Just as your adoptive parents chose you to be their child, other adopted things are also chosen: an adopted language is one you learn and then choose to speak, and an adopted state is the place you freely decide to live in. The Latin root is adoptare, "choose for oneself."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Statewide voters originally adopted the constitutional spending limit during an antitax wave in the late 1970s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Few would have expected him to veer from United squad player to cult hero mentioned in the same breath as Napoli's greatest adopted son, Diego Maradona.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The actress also owns several properties in Cambodia, purchasing her first dwelling in the country soon after she adopted her son Maddox, who was born in the country.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
But supporters argue the system is delivering results and around two-thirds of NHS hospitals have adopted the platform.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
I couldn’t stop wondering about who my biological parents were, what tribe they were from, or why I was adopted in the first place.
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
