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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

parent.

A person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɛəɹənt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɛːɹənt/British, Southern, Standard/ˈpɛəɹənt/General-American/ˈpæɹənt/General-American

  1. A person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).

    in-plural · often
    After both her parents were killed in a forest fire, Sonia was adopted by her aunt and uncle.

  2. A person who has had a baby; this person in relation to their child or children.

    in-plural · often

  3. A surrogate parent.

  4. A third person who has provided DNA samples in an IVF procedure in order to alter faulty genetic material.

  5. A relative.

    obsolete

  6. The source or origin of something.

  7. An organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.

  8. Sponsor, supporter, owner, protector.

    attributive

  9. Sponsor, supporter, owner, protector. A parent company.

    attributive

  10. The object from which a child or derived object is descended; a node superior to another node.

  11. The nuclide that decays into a daughter nuclide.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English parent, borrowed from Anglo-Norman parent, Middle French parent, from Latin parentem, accusative of parēns (“parent”), present participle of pariō (“to breed, bring forth”).

verb/ˈpɛəɹənt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɛːɹənt/British, Southern, Standard/ˈpɛəɹənt/General-American/ˈpæɹənt/General-American

  1. To act as parent, to raise or rear.

  2. To provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English parent, borrowed from Anglo-Norman parent, Middle French parent, from Latin parentem, accusative of parēns (“parent”), present participle of pariō (“to breed, bring forth”).

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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.