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.
Leveraging his old political connections, Burke won the right to run the city’s first marathon over two other bidders in 1984, after the City Council adopted a resolution to organize the race.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2026
The results suggest the technique could eventually be adopted by commercial chip manufacturers.
From Science Daily • May 30, 2026
It has adopted a “ticktock” release schedule, with major architecture advances coming every two years and upgrades in the intervening years.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
The U.A.E. has recently adopted a more accommodating posture, pushing for diplomatic solutions to a conflict that has put its vast energy facilities at risk, some of the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
“How old was I when you adopted me?”
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
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.
