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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

foster.

Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈfɒstə/Canada, Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/ˈfɔstə/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/ˈfɔstɚ//ˈfɑstɚ/cot-caught-merger

  1. Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.

    not-comparable
    foster parents

  2. Receiving such care.

    not-comparable
    a foster child

  3. Related by such care.

    not-comparable
    We are a foster family.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nourishment, food”). Cognate with Middle Dutch voester (“nursemaid”), Middle Low German vôster (“food”), Old Norse fóstr (“nurturing, education, alimony, child support”), Danish foster (“fetus”), Swedish foster (“fetus”).

noun/ˈfɒstə/Canada, Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/ˈfɔstə/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/ˈfɔstɚ//ˈfɑstɚ/cot-caught-merger

  1. A foster parent.

    countable · informal
    Some fosters end up adopting.

  2. The care given to another; guardianship.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nourishment, food”). Cognate with Middle Dutch voester (“nursemaid”), Middle Low German vôster (“food”), Old Norse fóstr (“nurturing, education, alimony, child support”), Danish foster (“fetus”), Swedish foster (“fetus”).

verb/ˈfɒstə/Canada, Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/ˈfɔstə/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/ˈfɔstɚ//ˈfɑstɚ/cot-caught-merger

  1. To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.

    transitive

  2. To promote the development of something; to cultivate and grow a thing.

    transitive
    Our company fosters an appreciation for the arts.

  3. To nurse or cherish something.

    transitive

  4. To be nurtured or trained up together.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nourishment, food”). Cognate with Middle Dutch voester (“nursemaid”), Middle Low German vôster (“food”), Old Norse fóstr (“nurturing, education, alimony, child support”), Danish foster (“fetus”), Swedish foster (“fetus”).

noun/ˈfɒstə/Canada, Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/ˈfɔstə/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/ˈfɔstɚ//ˈfɑstɚ/cot-caught-merger

  1. A forester.

    obsolete
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.