adoptive parent
- noun
- /əˈdɑptɪv ˈpɛrənt/
- Our next orphan, Susan... was on her way to Namibia to meet her new adoptive parents.
- prospective adoptive parents
- adoptive parents and birth
- adoptive parents and children
You've got adoptive parents of adopted children.
- You've got adoptive parents of adopted children.
- My my, my adoptive parents gave up on me and kicked me out of the house.
- And you can study adoptive parents of those kids who share environment but not genes.
Examples
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By the time they are of school age, finding adoptive parents for them becomes next to impossible.
Academic text (2003) -
My husband Mike (also a music teacher) and I are adoptive parents of three sons with a variety of disabilities.
Academic text (2006) -
Were you close to your adoptive parents?
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- Okay, "My adoptive parents fully support me on this.
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What about your adoptive parents?
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Just ask my adoptive parents.
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When I was in the hospital... my adoptive parents visited me.
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She loves her adoptive parents most deeply.
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After just one visit, he wrote a letter highly recommending them as prospective adoptive parents.
Academic text (1997) -
My adoptive parents love me just like their biological children.
Synonyms
Of the mother and father plants or animals used to make hybrids
A person who legally becomes a child's parent
How Parental
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'adoptive' (= formed through adoption) modifies 'parent' (a person who raises a child), so the phrase denotes a parent who has adopted a child. This modifier+noun pattern is transparent and common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Adoptive parent combines adoptive (from the idea 'to adopt', meaning to choose and take a child into your family) and parent (someone who raises a child). So an adoptive parent is a person who chooses a child born to other parents and raises them as their own.