Word.ws English Dictionary

allomothering

allomothering is the present participle and gerund of allomother.

Meaning of allomother

Verb

allomother (third-person singular simple present allomothers, present participle allomothering, simple past and past participle allomothered)

  1. (transitive) To provide maternal care for another creature's young.

See all 2 meanings of allomother

Noun

allomothering (uncountable)

  1. The provision of infant care from someone other than the mother.
    • They’re so big (read: hungry) and so slow to grow to independence, that allomothering – infant care from other than the mother – not only from a baby’s grandmother, maternal aunts and sisters, but also from the baby’s brothers, father and his kin, enabled us to continue and maybe even thrive under...2017 August 9, Holly Dunsworth, Anne Buchanan, “Sex makes babies”, in Aeon

Questions about allomothering

What does allomothering mean?
Allomothering means the provision of infant care from someone other than the mother.
What is allomothering the present participle and gerund of?
Allomothering is the present participle and gerund of allomother.
What part of speech is allomothering?
Allomothering is a noun.

Words near allomothering in the dictionary

  1. allomorphite
  2. allomorphs
  3. allomorphy
  4. allomother
  5. allomothered
  6. allomothering
  7. allomothers
  8. allomucic acid
  9. allonamide
  10. alloneogitostin
  11. allonge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: allomothering (page history and authors); allomother (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “allomothering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/allomothering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.