the act of accepting with approval; favorable reception; "its adoption by society"; "the proposal found wide acceptance"
a legal proceeding that creates a parent-child relation between persons not related by blood; the adopted child is entitled to all privileges belonging to a natural child of the adoptive parents (including the right to inherit)
the act of imitating the behavior of some situation or some process by means of something suitably analogous (especially for the purpose of study or personnel training)
(computer science) the technique of representing the real world by a computer program; "a simulation should imitate the internal processes and not merely the results of the thing being simulated"