adoption
Pluraladoptions
- 1The acceptance of another couple's or person's child as one's own, and the resulting state of being so accepted.
The couple pursued adoption after struggling for years to have children.
Open adoption allows the birth parents to stay in contact with the child.
Note
Most often met in fixed phrases about the child's side of the arrangement: a baby is put up for adoption or given away for adoption. Those verbs belong to the birth parents or an agency, while the new family simply adopts. Because the word names the resulting state as well as the act, it can look back on a whole history, as in Baroness Orczy's "the story of this adoption."
- 2The act of accepting a method, proposal, or technique and putting it into effect or practice.
The board's adoption of the merger plan surprised the shareholders.
Widespread adoption of the technique transformed how surgeons operate.
Similarapproval, acceptance, implementation, uptake, endorsement
Oppositerejection
- 3The act of adopting; the taking on of a person, practice, or thing as one's own.
The adoption of stricter rules followed months of complaints.
His sudden adoption of a vegetarian diet puzzled his friends.
Similaracceptance, introduction, embrace
Oppositerejection, abandonment
Note
The general noun behind all the others, borrowed from French adoption and Latin adoptio and built the way it looks: adopt plus -ion. It usually takes an of-phrase naming what is taken on, and an as-phrase can add the role it is given, as in an organization's adoption of someone as a prisoner of conscience. It is countable for a single act and uncountable for the practice.
- 4The act of choosing something that originally was not one's own and making it so; acceptance.
The settlers' adoption of native farming methods ensured their survival.
Her gradual adoption of the city's accent went unnoticed by her.
Similaracceptance, embrace, acquisition
Oppositerejection, abandonment
Note
Here what is taken in is not a child but a belief, a habit or a word: the adoption of opinions, the adoption of words from another language. The image carries over from the family meaning, in which something born elsewhere is made one's own. It nearly always takes of plus the thing adopted. Where the practical sense stresses putting a method to work, this one stresses ownership.
- 5The move from an existing system to a different and usually better one.
The hospital's adoption of electronic records reduced paperwork dramatically.
Widespread adoption of renewable energy systems requires major infrastructure changes.
Similarintroduction, implementation, uptake
Note
Computing's version is about the switchover itself. An organization leaves an established system behind and moves onto a newer one, usually because the replacement performs better or does more. Unlike accepting a proposal, the emphasis falls on migration and on retiring what came before, not just on agreeing to something.
- 6
- 7In Christian theology, the act of divine grace by which those redeemed in Christ are received into the privileges of God's children.
Paul's letters present adoption as the believer's entry into God's family.
The doctrine of adoption assures the faithful of their place among God's children.
Note
A doctrine with a place of its own in Christian theology, especially in the Reformed tradition. There it is distinct from justification but follows from it: the redeemed are not only accepted but are also given the legal standing and privileges of children in God's family. Older wording speaks of "the sons of God," and modern writers often say "God's children."
- 8In gaming, a streak of ten consecutive wins against the same opponent.
She claimed the adoption with her tenth consecutive victory over him.
Bragging rights came with the adoption he scored that season.
Note
Chess players' slang with a strict threshold: the score must reach 10–0, so a single draw ends the run. In the possessive it names the loser. His adoption is the one he suffered, not one he achieved. Chess.com's Adopt-A-Danny series of 2020 built a show around the idea, with challengers trying to break the string of adoptions.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from French adoption, from Latin adoptio, which is related to adoptare ("to adopt"). It can also be seen as adopt plus the suffix -ion.