foster home

noun

A household in which a child is placed for foster care.

Meanings

nounfoster home (plural foster homes)

plural foster homes · alternative foster-home · alternative fosterhome

  1. A household in which a child is placed for foster care.

    Pete's foster home placements were never successful.

    2007, Geraldine M Humphrey, David G Zimpfer, Counselling for Grief and Bereavement
    1 more example

    For a long time, as they shifted him from foster home to foster home, his records lost somewhere, he believed he was an orphan; but slowly it came to him that this was not true: he was a bastard.

    2014, Ernest Hebert, The Dogs of March
  2. A household that volunteers to care for a domestic animal it does not own, especially by raising it from infancy until it is old enough to be adopted by a permanent owner.

    The group placed him in a foster home with a woman and two little girls, then advertised in the local paper.

    2003, Marilyn Cochran Mosley, Dachshund Tails Rescued and Other Tales

Origin

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 寄養家庭 /寄养家庭
  • 寄養家庭 /寄养家庭 (jìyǎng jiātíng)non-adoptive household caring for child
Finnish sijaiskoti
  • sijaiskotinon-adoptive household caring for child
Hungarian befogadó család, nevelőcsalád
  • befogadó családnon-adoptive household caring for child
  • nevelőcsaládnon-adoptive household caring for child
Indonesian keluarga asuh
  • keluarga asuhnon-adoptive household caring for child
Irish baile altrama, áras altrama
  • baile altramanon-adoptive household caring for child
  • áras altramanon-adoptive household caring for child
Korean 위탁가정
  • 위탁가정 (witakgajeong)non-adoptive household caring for child
Spanish casa de acogida, hogar de acogimiento
  • casa de acogidanon-adoptive household caring for child
  • hogar de acogimientonon-adoptive household caring for child
  • hogar de adopción temporáneanon-adoptive household caring for child
  • hogar adoptivo temporáneonon-adoptive household caring for child
Swedish familjehem, fosterhem
  • familjehemnon-adoptive household caring for child
  • fosterhemnon-adoptive household caring for child
Cite this entry
APA

foster home. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foster%20home

MLA

“foster home.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foster%20home. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “foster home,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foster%20home.

Source: foster home on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.