Showing results for "adopted"

• past participle of adopt.
• past tense form of adopt.

adopted

British  

/ əˈdɒptɪd /

adjective

1. having been adopted Compare adoptive

   an adopted child

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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

See Examples For:

adopted

Dunkley took the nine-month-old to social services and he was later adopted.

From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2026

After Pearl Harbor, Capra jumped at the chance to defend his adopted country.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

Under pressure, the city council ultimately rejected the Viridian project in June, then adopted a one-year moratorium, before a majority of voters on Tuesday backed new restrictions.

From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026

But it was clear at the time it was adopted that it did not empower “the justices of the court to supplement or supplant the Governor’s executive clemency authority.”

From Slate ● Nov. 5, 2026

For astronomical purposes the Greeks adopted a sexagesimal number system and even divided hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

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Related Words

• accessible
• familiar
• prevalent
• public
• rampant
• ubiquitous
• universal

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