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Adoption vs Custody - What's the difference?

adoption | custody |

As nouns the difference between adoption and custody

is that adoption is the act of adopting, or state of being adopted; voluntary acceptance of a child of other parents to be the same as one's own child while custody is the legal right to take care of something or somebody, especially children.

adoption

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of adopting, or state of being adopted; voluntary acceptance of a child of other parents to be the same as one's own child.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas. […]”}}
    A Chinese baby girl was given away for adoption .
  • Admission to a more intimate relation; reception; as, the adoption of persons into hospitals or monasteries, or of one society into another.
  • The choosing and making that to be one's own which originally was not so; acceptance; as, the adoption of opinions.
  • (computing) Transfer between an old system to another (usually better) system.
  • Our school is considering the adoption of Wiktionary as the standard dictionary.

    custody

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia custody) (-)
  • The legal right to take care of something or somebody, especially children.
  • The court awarded custody to the child's father.
  • Temporary possession or care of somebody else's property.
  • I couldn't pay the bill and now my passport is in custody of the hotel management.
  • The state of being imprisoned or detained, usually pending a trial.
  • He was mistreated while in police custody .

    Derived terms

    * joint custody * maternal custody * paternal custody * protective custody * sole custody