adopt
/əˈdɑpt/verb, noun
adopt is spelled A-D-O-P-T. The wrong spelling people search most is addopt: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 333 of all searches for the word. Adopt is a verb meaning “To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child”.
How many letters and syllables are in adopt?
| Letters | 5: A-D-O-P-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,206th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, addopt, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell adopt?
Adopt is spelled A-D-O-P-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 336 of the searches for adopt in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is adopt?
Adopt appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,206th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce adopt?
- UK /əˈdɒpt/
- US /əˈdɑpt/
Adopt has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-adopt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with adopt
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with adopt?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as adopt from its last stressed vowel (/ɑpt/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of adopt
- adopts present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- adopting participle, present
- adopted participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does adopt mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.
A friend of mine recently adopted a Chinese baby girl found on the streets of Beijing.
- 2
To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild.
We're going to adopt a Dalmatian.
- 3
To contribute towards the upkeep of (a child or animal), in exchange for occasional stories, pictures, etc.
We adopted an elephant at the local zoo.
- 4
To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility.
This supermarket chain adopts several families every Yuletide, providing them with money and groceries for the holidays.
- 5
To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.
He adopted a new look in order to fit in with his new workmates.
- 6
To select and take or approve.
to adopt the view or policy of another
- 7
slangTo beat an opponent ten times in a row.
The match was not even close; the IM made amateurish blunders and ended up getting adopted.
noun
- 1
informalClipping of adoptable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Adopt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | adopter |
| German | adoptieren , annehmen, übernehmen |
| Portuguese | adotar |
| Spanish | adoptar, ahijar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does adopt come from?
From Middle French adopter, from Latin adoptō; ad + optō (“to choose, desire”), equivalent to ad- + opt.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).