"adopt" means to select and take or approve. It is one of many casual words teens pick up from friends, social media, music or sport, and on its own it carries no particular warning. If you hear your teen use it, it is fair to ask what they mean by it in their friend group, since meanings drift quickly. Asking out of curiosity rather than alarm tends to keep the conversation open and useful.
adopt
To select and take or approve.
Seen in the wild
15 citations · last seen May 2026
Seen in the wild
BlueskyMay 2026
Don’t adopt Trinamool culture of post-poll violence after victory: Suvendu Adhikari to party workers #Dont #Trinamool #SuvenduAdhikari #socialnewsxyz
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BlueskyMay 2026
Whenever I’m writing a post, now to your Excellency, an agent or automated bot or whatever the cyberstalking procedure they adopt to inform me that my online activity is being monitored stalks me.
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BlueskyMay 2026
Soon, after I get day 4 and along with Day 5's Adopt, I'll announce the winners.
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BlueskyMay 2026
Christ. Can you imagine? Publicly supporting the fucking *Red Cross*?!? What’s the next shoe to drop? Will we hear that he encouraged people to adopt pets from shelters?
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BlueskyMay 2026
She moved in on Monday and starts her new job this morning. Her husband and daughter came with her and I want to adopt her. She’s super cute.
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Definitions
Global
#1·Apr 26, 2026Global
To select and take or approve.
These are resolutions that were adopted.
For parents
"adopt" means to select and take or approve. It is one of many casual words teens pick up from friends, social media, music or sport, and on its own it carries no particular warning. If you hear your teen use it, it is fair to ask what they mean by it in their friend group, since meanings drift quickly. Asking out of curiosity rather than alarm tends to keep the conversation open and useful.
For ESL learners
"adopt" is informal English meaning to select and take or approve. It is used widely across English varieties. A more formal or neutral equivalent would be something like "to select and take or approve" expressed in standard vocabulary. A common mistake is to assume "adopt" can replace its standard equivalent in every register; keep it for spoken or casual situations and use the formal form in writing. If you are a B2 or C1 learner, it is useful to recognise this word when you hear or read it, but think carefully about whether the situation really calls for it before using it yourself.
Heard in the wild
“NHS trusts across England that have introduced the new standardised uniform report positive feedback, but take-up is low – we look at how many staff are now wearing the garments. The new uniform is optional and organisations are not obliged to adopt it. rcni.com/nursing-stan...”
— Bluesky· May 2026“I wouldn’t consider buying a hybrid as an ‘EV test’ for most people. Certainly not why I bought my hybrid. Not ready to adopt full EV, also not available in what I wanted, but the hybrid increased the fuel efficiency and among other things, met the needs I had.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Ziwe wherein you adopt the lightly antagonistic Ziwe tone.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Re-listing Yumi. Base by @kiwipotato.bsky.social Looking for $50 or best offer. #FurryArt #NSFW #Adopt”
— Bluesky· May 2026“But then loads of people eat gluten and get other weird immune symptoms and test negative for both coeliac and wheat allergy. And they get better when we adopt a coeliac diet (I’m one of them). And a lot of medics don’t believe it’s real.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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Global
#2·Apr 26, 2026Global
To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.
[S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink a…
Heard in the wild
“Don’t adopt Trinamool culture of post-poll violence after victory: Suvendu Adhikari to party workers #Dont #Trinamool #SuvenduAdhikari #socialnewsxyz”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Whenever I’m writing a post, now to your Excellency, an agent or automated bot or whatever the cyberstalking procedure they adopt to inform me that my online activity is being monitored stalks me.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Soon, after I get day 4 and along with Day 5's Adopt, I'll announce the winners.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Christ. Can you imagine? Publicly supporting the fucking *Red Cross*?!? What’s the next shoe to drop? Will we hear that he encouraged people to adopt pets from shelters?”
— Bluesky· May 2026“She moved in on Monday and starts her new job this morning. Her husband and daughter came with her and I want to adopt her. She’s super cute.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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Global
#3·Apr 26, 2026Global
To take (a child, heir, friend, citizen, etc.) by choice into a relationship.
He adopted a new look in order to fit in with his new workmates.
Origin: From , from ; , equivalent to. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Heard in the wild
“Today's adoptable pet is Pumpkin. See a new dog or cat each day, learn about their personality, age, breed and how to adopt them on TodaysTail https://todaystail.com/20260505 #adoptapet #todaystail”
— Bluesky· May 2026“I would be *so* tempted to ask my favourite question: "Your name is <checks notes> Janne. Why?" (Great service and an idea I'd hope more lecturers would adopt, at least those with experience from the industry!)”
— Bluesky· May 2026“This is basically where I am too. "TERF" had a purpose when it was referring to a specific weird niche of radfems. But that niche was always pretty marginal to broader anti-trans politics, and the latter trying to cynically adopt the former as a cover shouldn't blind us to that.”
— Bluesky· May 2026““As well as free movement, we will have to join Schengen and open our borders” “We will have to adopt the Euro” “We will have to join a European army“”
— Bluesky· May 2026“No! 😂😂😂 I'm available if anyone wants to adopt me.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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For specific readers
Why is this section here?
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.
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Other words near "adopt" (A)
Admiralty hamadmireadmissionadmittanceAdonisAdoorsadopt energyadoptionadoption energyadopt maxxingadopt sznadorabubble
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