Word.ws English Dictionary

gestatory

UK/ˈdʒɛstətəɹi//ˈdʒɛstətɔɹi/

gestatory adjective: gestational (pertaining to gestation or pregnancy).

Adjective

gestatory (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) gestational (pertaining to gestation or pregnancy)
    • gestatory surrogacy
  2. (obsolete, rare) Capable of being carried or worn.
    • The Crowns and Garlands of the Ancients were either Gestatory, such as they wore about their Heads or Necks; Portatory, such as they carried at solemn Festivals; Pensile or Suspensory, such as they hanged about the Posts of their Houses in honour of their Gods, as of Jupiter Thyræus or Limeneus; or...1684, Thomas Browne, “Of Garlands and Coronary Plants”, in Miscellany Tracts
    • In its secondary sense feretrum signified a portable shrine, containing the relics of saints, and carried in processions on a frame similar to the ordinary bier; and also stationary shrines of similar fashion, but which it was not customary to display as gestatory ornaments, such as those of St....1843, Albert Way, editor, Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum, London, page 157

Origin of gestatory

From Latin gestatorius (“that serves for carrying”). Compare French gestatoire.

Questions about gestatory

What does gestatory mean?
Gestatory means gestational (pertaining to gestation or pregnancy).
What part of speech is gestatory?
Gestatory is an adjective.
How do you pronounce gestatory?
Gestatory is pronounced /ˈdʒɛstətɔɹi/ (US).

Words near gestatory in the dictionary

  1. gestator
  2. gestatorial
  3. gestatorial chair
  4. gestatorial chairs
  5. gestators
  6. gestatory
  7. geste antagoniste
  8. gested
  9. gestes antagonistes
  10. Gestetner
  11. gestic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gestatory (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-gestatory.oga.

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