godmother
Syllables: god·mother/ˈɡɒdmʌðə/
godmother noun: a woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner; a female godparent who sponsors the baptism of a child.
Noun
godmother (plural godmothers)
- A woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner; a female godparent who sponsors the baptism of a child.
Verb
godmother (third-person singular simple present godmothers, present participle godmothering, simple past and past participle godmothered)
- To act as godmother to.
- The servants took to her – as they say – she godmothered three Susans during her rule, the coachman's, the gardener's and the Up Hill gamekeeper's.1909, H. G. Wells, Tono-Bungay
godmother meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Tagalog
godmother in Tamil
- தொட்டாச்சி
godmother in Malayalam
- തലതൊട്ടമ്മ
godmother in Kannada
- ಧರ್ಮಮಾತೆ, ಧರ್ಮತಾಯಿ
godmother in Tagalog
- woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner
- inaama, ninang, madrina
More languagesFewer languages
- godmother in Arabic
- عَرَّابَة ʕarrāba, إِشْبِينَة ʔišbīna
- godmother in Indonesian
- ibu baptis, ibu permandian
- godmother in Thai
- แม่ทูนหัว mɛ̂ɛ-tuun-hǔua, แม่อุปถัมภ์ mɛ̂ɛ-ù-bpà-tǎm
- godmother in Vietnamese
- mẹ đỡ đầu
Examples of godmother in a sentence
- Mary stood as godmother for little Emily, her godchild.
- I thought it was clever the director cast the same woman to play both the Wicked Witch and Prince Charming's fairy godmother.
- Isaac Nathan's Christian wife served as godmother to his outside son, born after their Christian marriage.
Synonyms of godmother
Forms of godmother
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | godmothers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | godmothers |
| present participle | godmothering |
| past participle | godmothered |
| past | godmothered |
Origin of godmother
From Middle English godmoder, from Old English godmōdor (“godmother”), equivalent to god- + mother. Cognate with Old High German gotmuoter (“godmother”), Old Norse guðmóðir (“godmother”), Icelandic guðmóður (“godmother”), Swedish gudmoder (“godmother”), Danish gudmor (“godmother”).
Words formed from godmother
Questions about godmother
- What does godmother mean?
- Godmother means a woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner; a female godparent who sponsors the baptism of a child.
- What is godmother in Tamil?
- Godmother in Tamil is தொட்டாச்சி. See Godmother meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is godmother?
- Godmother can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce godmother?
- Godmother is pronounced /ˈɡɒdmʌðə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of godmother?
- The plural of godmother is godmothers.
Words near godmother in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: godmother (page history and authors); godmother (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); godmother (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); godmother (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-godmother.wav.
Cite this entry: “godmother.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/godmother. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.