Meaning & use
adopted
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Legally taken into a family as a son or daughter by people who are not the child's birth parents.
Grammar: Often goes before a noun: an adopted child; it can also follow be: she was adopted.
Patterns
- adopted child
- adopted son
Their adopted daughter started school this year.
He was adopted as a baby and grew up in Ohio.
The adopted children kept in touch with their birth families.
adjectivebefore a noun
Chosen or taken up as your own, such as a country, name or habit, even though you were not born with it.
Grammar: Goes before a noun: her adopted homeland, an adopted name.
Patterns
- adopted country
- adopted name
Canada became her adopted country after she left Kenya.
The singer performed under an adopted name.
He cheered for his adopted hometown team with real passion.
verbtransitive
Past tense and past participle of adopt: began to use or follow a method, policy or attitude.
Grammar: Takes an object: the school adopted a new policy.
Patterns
- adopted something
- have adopted something
The council adopted the new recycling plan last month.
She adopted a calmer tone during the meeting.
Many stores have adopted self-checkout machines.
Common combinations
- adopted child
- The adopted child met her birth mother at age twenty.
- adopted home
- San Diego is his adopted home.
- adopted country
- She is proud of her adopted country.
- officially adopted
- The rule was officially adopted in March.
- widely adopted
- The standard was widely adopted by manufacturers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- foster
- A foster child is cared for temporarily, while an adopted child becomes a permanent legal member of the family.
- chosen
- Chosen is much broader and has no legal meaning, while adopted names a specific, often legal, relationship.
- embraced
- Embraced describes enthusiastically taking up an idea or practice, not a legal act.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: adopted or adapted? adopted or adoptive?
adopted vs adapted
Adapted means changed to suit new conditions, while adopted means taken up or taken in as your own.
adopted vs adoptive
Adoptive describes the parents who adopt, while adopted describes the child or the thing chosen.
Practice
Choose the correct word. Her ____ parents drove her to the airport on the day she left for college.
Choose one answer.
Adoptive describes the parents who took in a child. Adopted would describe the child, not the parents, and adapted means something different.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “adopted”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.