Adoptive

How to spell adoptive

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce adoptive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does adoptive mean?

1. adjectiveRelated by adoption rather than by birth, describing a parent, family, or relationship formed through legally taking in a child.

Adoptive in a sentence

• Her adoptive parents raised her from infancy with great care.

• The agency helped match each child with a suitable adoptive family.

Where does adoptive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin adoptivus, an adjective meaning 'gained by adoption' or 'related through adoption rather than birth'. It was built on the verb adoptare, which combined ad- 'to' with optare 'to choose or wish for', so the literal idea was 'to choose someone for yourself' as a son, daughter, or heir. English took the word in through Old French during the late 1400s and applied it to the family ties created when a child is taken in and raised as one's own. The same optare root that means 'to choose' still surfaces in everyday words such as 'option', 'opt', and 'adopt', all of which share the sense of selecting something deliberately. A useful spelling clue is that adoptive keeps the plain 'adopt' fully intact and simply adds -ive, so there is no hidden vowel to drop.

How the word is built

• ad- (to)
• opt (from optare: to choose)
• -ive (adjective suffix)