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.
In a fact sheet about the Beijing summit, released Sunday, the White House adopted the “constructive strategic partnership” framing, although it added “on the basis of fairness and reciprocity.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
Lives were saved and the pit-crew model was widely adopted for pediatric surgery and neonatal resuscitation around the world.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
The “Soak Up the Sun” singer adopted her older son, Wyatt, now 19, the same year that she moved to Nashville, and later welcomed Levi, now 16, in 2010.
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
The fears may be elevated in areas where technology is more easily adopted to replicate information technology work, reshaping that workforce.
From BBC • May 18, 2026
“Yeah. He loves you guys. But it’s your choice. You can stay with him just like you are whether you’re adopted or not.”
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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.
