adoption
noun
Simple meaning
the process of taking on something or someone new
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhdahpshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈdɑpʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The state of being adopted; the acceptance of a child of other parents as if he or she were one's own child.
The act of accepting with approval; favorable reception
The act of accepting and putting into effect or practice (a method, proposal, technique, etc.)
The act of adopting.
The choosing and making that to be one's own which originally was not so; acceptance.
An admission to an institution, for example a hospital, clinic, mental asylum.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state of being adopted; the acceptance of a child of other parents as if he or she were one's own child.
Used this way, adoption is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use adoption
- “Its adoption by society.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- constitutionnoun
- statutenoun
- adoptiveadjective
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.