Word.ws English Dictionary

childbearing

childbearing noun: the process of giving birth; pregnancy and parturition.

Noun

childbearing (usually uncountable, plural childbearings)

  1. (usually) The process of giving birth; pregnancy and parturition.
    • women of childbearing age
    • From the Swedish returns (1776-1855) it appears that 100 childbearings produced 101.62 children, viz., 2.82 stillborn, 98.80 quickborn; consequently 100 quickborn children imply 101.21 childbearings.1865, Great Britain. General Register Office, Annual Report ... of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England and Wales ..., volumes 26–30, page 243

Adjective

childbearing (not comparable)

  1. Of, pertaining to, or suitable for childbirth.
    • Women in the latter stages of childbearing should not be permitted to attend the toll of the manufactories.1836, Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, England and the English
    • In these cases, fish intake rates specific to females of childbearing age are most appropriate when assessing exposures to developmental toxicants.2000, Methodology for deriving ambient water quality criteria for the protection of human health
  2. (figuratively, informal) Of a woman's hips, attractively wide.
    • Hips that in the old country would be considered good childbearing hips, but in this country are too wide.2004, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Stephanie Marston, Chicken Soup to Inspire a Woman's Soul: Stories Celebrating the Wisdom, Fun and Freedom of Midlife, page 256

childbearing meaning in Kannada and Sanskrit

childbearing in Kannada

ಮಕ್ಕಳನ್ನು ಪಡೆಯುವುದು, ಹೆರುವುದು, ಬಸಿರಾಗುವುದು

childbearing in Sanskrit

childbearing, parturition
सू sū́

Forms of childbearing

pluralchildbearings
alternative formchild-bearing

Origin of childbearing

From Middle English childberyng, childbering, chyldberynge, child berynge. By surface analysis, child + bearing.

Words formed from childbearing

Questions about childbearing

What does childbearing mean?
Childbearing means the process of giving birth; pregnancy and parturition.
What is childbearing in Kannada?
Childbearing in Kannada is ಮಕ್ಕಳನ್ನು ಪಡೆಯುವುದು, ಹೆರುವುದು, ಬಸಿರಾಗುವುದು. See Childbearing meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is childbearing?
Childbearing can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of childbearing?
The plural of childbearing is childbearings.

Words near childbearing in the dictionary

  1. child-toucher
  2. child-touchers
  3. Child.
  4. childbearer
  5. childbearers
  6. childbearing
  7. childbearings
  8. childbed
  9. childbed fever
  10. childbeds
  11. childbirth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: childbearing (page history and authors); childbearing (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); सू (Sanskrit) (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: “childbearing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/childbearing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.