Adele says she is "ready" to fall in love again.

The singer's hit album, 21, was inspired by a bad break-up with her past boyfriend.

Adele admitted that she has been holding on to those bitter feelings, but she is finally ready to find someone new.

"Not having someone to share all this with made me miserable at times, to be honest," she told Billboard magazine. "I wanted nothing more than to be in love and be loved back. That was until I remembered I was sharing it with millions and millions and millions of people!! I haven't been ready to be in love again since summer 2009 ... until now. And I hadn't met anyone along the way who's changed that."

The star has been suffering from highly-publicised health problems.

Recently, she had surgery to remove a benign polyp from her throat and she has not allowed to speak or sing for weeks. The 23-year-old is recovering well.

"It couldn't have gone better. But because I was singing with damaged vocal chords for three or four months and because of the surgery and because of the silence after the surgery I now have to build myself back up vocally."

When she has fully recovered, the star is looking forward to doing some more performances.

However, she also revealed it may be some time before she releases any new material.

"I'm really looking forward to some time to do nothing. I imagine I'll be 25 or 26 by the time my next record comes out, as I haven't even thought about my third record yet," she confessed. "I'm just gonna lay some concrete, set up home and just 'be' for a bit. I'll disappear and come back with a record when it's good enough. There will be no new music until it's good enough and until I'm ready."