How to Use adoptive in a Sentence

adoptive

adjective
  • The adoptive parents of the third Adams child who has filed suit declined to speak to the AP about the case.
    — Michael Rezendes, The Arizona Republic, 4 Aug. 2022
  • The second was the death of her adoptive father in 2014.
    — Jim Stingl, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2 Mar. 2018
  • Beth’s adoptive mother brought enough heart to warm the whole thing up.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 14 July 2021
  • This meant her adoptive mother could work part-time and spend more time with the girl.
    — Keith Bierygolick, Cincinnati.com, 12 July 2018
  • None of the dogs’ adoptive parents know the outcome of the bowl or how much air time their pup will see.
    — Sue Kiesewetter, Cincinnati.com, 30 Jan. 2018
  • In Athens more than 6,000 miles from his adoptive city of Houston, Rick Lowe is at home.
    — Adam Bradley, New York Times, 7 June 2023
  • Hunter found out about the program in her foster care and adoptive group.
    — Alana Minkler, The Arizona Republic, 13 July 2020
  • Tressie King and her husband, Jamel, along with their adoptive son.
    — Hannah Rappleye, NBC News, 8 Dec. 2022
  • Allen and Maria’s son, Earnest Young, moved to Virginia after the death of his adoptive parents and lived to the ripe old age of 83.
    — Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Nov. 2022
  • So-young on board with the plan to hit the road and meet with potential adoptive parents.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 May 2022
  • Vallow was the adoptive father of one of the children and the stepfather of the other.
    — Chloe Jones, The Arizona Republic, 14 Nov. 2020
  • Carter last year filed a lawsuit against the boys' adoptive parents.
    — Carol Robinson | Crobinson@al.com, al, 13 Nov. 2020
  • At the time, Major Haley went by the same first name as his adoptive father, Bill.
    — Matthew Rosenberg, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2024
  • He was born in Ethiopia and raised by white adoptive parents in Sweden.
    — Kelli Kennedy, OrlandoSentinel.com, 18 June 2018
  • The court ordered them not to talk and sent Katie Pladl to live with her adoptive family in New York.
    — Staff Reports, courant.com, 20 Apr. 2018
  • One of her favorite shops in her adoptive city is Boutique de France.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 3 Nov. 2023
  • The adoptive father was found not guilty by a jury in 2022, while the mother's charges were dismissed this year.
    — Christina Coulter, Fox News, 6 Jan. 2024
  • Phillips asked him to marry her and raise an adoptive child together, the suit says.
    — Maxine Bernstein, OregonLive.com, 5 Feb. 2018
  • His adoptive father died of a heart attack when Cruz was 5.
    — Gerard Albert Iii, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2022
  • One of the first missions forces Sam to carry his own adoptive mother’s corpse on his back.
    — Adrian Chen, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2020
  • The new law also changes the applicable age of an adoptive child from 7 to 10.
    — Joe Sonka, The Courier-Journal, 2 July 2021
  • But when one’s adoptive home thrives, even as the home country flounders, a kind of survivor’s guilt kicks in.
    — Aatish Taseer, Time, 27 Apr. 2021
  • Her [adoptive] father called her scar the Devil’s mark.
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Sep. 2022
  • The photo shows one of the nannies who cared for her handing her to her new adoptive mother.
    — NBC News, 12 Nov. 2021
  • Many of my friends never knew that Beth was my adoptive daughter.
    — Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 13 May 2024
  • Mary Sisk was Mason Sisk’s adoptive mother and was one of the five people he is accused of killing.
    — Paul Gattis | Pgattis@al.com, al, 20 Sep. 2022
  • Now, four years later, Zach and his wife are her adoptive parents.
    — Adrienne Broaddus, CNN, 1 Oct. 2021
  • The core idea of these stories was that orphans were fated to end up with their adoptive parents.
    — Erika Hayasaki, The Atlantic, 25 Oct. 2022
  • The Glass Dome focuses on Lejla, a criminologist who returns to her hometown in Sweden after her adoptive mother dies.
    — Rebecca Aizin, People.com, 18 Apr. 2025
  • But Clint later set the record straight so that Yelena understood that her adoptive sister sacrificed herself for the sake of bringing half the population back from Thanos’ blip, including Yelena.
    — Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 5 May 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adoptive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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