midwife
/ˈmɪd.waɪf/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
obsolete/ˈmɪd.(w)ɪf/
midwife noun: a person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth, but who is not a physician.
Noun
midwife (plural midwives)
- A person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth, but who is not a physician.
- A hundred years ago, a midwife would bring the baby into the world - going to a hospital to deliver a baby was either impossible or unheard of.
- Modernly, a hospital midwife is usually a registered nurse.
- Someone who assists in bringing about some result or project.
- He had not read it, but he said that every detail in it was true. This struck me as a rather cavalier attitude to truth, but hatred is not the midwife of caution or accuracy.2012, Theodore Dalrymple, The Wilder Shores of Marx: Journeys in a Vanishing World
Verb
midwife (third-person singular simple present midwifes, present participle midwifing, simple past and past participle midwifed)
- To act as a midwife.
- To facilitate the emergence of.
- But the bigger objective was to help Iraqis midwife a democratic model that could inspire reform across the Arab-Muslim world and give the youth there a chance at a better future.2010 April 13, Thomas L. Friedman, “Attention: Baby on Board.”, in The New York Times
- In the mid-1960s, Reichism was midwifed into reexistence by such stalwarts as William Schutz, Bernard Gunther, Charlotte Selver, Alexander Lowen, Ida Rolf, and many other exponents of human knead needs.2013, Jon Carlson, William Knaus, Albert Ellis Revisited, →ISBN, page 288
midwife meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
midwife in Hindi
- person who assists women in childbirth
- प्रसाविका prasāvikā, जनाई janāī, दाई dāī, मिडवाइफ़ miḍvāif, धात्री dhātrī
midwife in Tamil
- person who assists women in childbirth
- மருத்துவச்சி maruttuvacci
midwife in Marathi
- person who assists women in childbirth
- दाई dāī
midwife in Urdu
- person who assists women in childbirth
- دائِی dāī, جَنائی janāī, قابِلَہ qābila, مِڈْوائِف miḍvāif
More languagesFewer languages
- midwife in Bengali
- দাই dai, ধাত্রী dhatri, মিডওয়াইফ miḍōẇaiph
- midwife in Telugu
- మంత్రసాని mantrasāni
- midwife in Malayalam
- വയറ്റാട്ടി vayaṟṟāṭṭi
- midwife in Kannada
- ಸೂಲಗಿತ್ತಿ, ಸೂಲಗಾತಿ, ಮಿಡ್ವೈಪ್
- midwife in Punjabi
- ਮਿਡਵਾਈਫ
- midwife in Gujarati
- દાઈ dāī
- midwife in Odia
- ଧାଈ dhāi, ଧାତ୍ରୀ dhātri
- midwife in Sanskrit
- साविका sāvikā, धात्री dhātrī
- midwife in Nepali
- मिडवाइफ, मिडवाइफलाई
- midwife in Pashto
- قابله qābela, دايه dāyá, دايي dāyí, تيي tayí
- midwife in Tagalog
- kumadrona
- midwife in Arabic
- قَابِلَة qābila, دَايَة dāya
- midwife in Malay
- bidan, pengulin, dukun beranak
- midwife in Indonesian
- bidan
- midwife in Thai
- ตำแย dtam-yɛɛ, หมอตำแย mɔ̌ɔ dtam-yɛɛ
- midwife in Vietnamese
- bà đỡ, bà mụ, bà đỡ đẻ, nữ hộ sinh
- midwife in Myanmar
- လက်သည် laksany, ဝမ်းဆွဲ wam:hcwai:
Examples of midwife in a sentence
- The mother was in the second stage of labor and the fetus had just crowned, prompting a round of encouragement from the midwives.
- His greatest triumphs involved manipulating the love life of the ‘obstetric toad’ (the common midwife toad).
- A tocophobe, or maieusiophobe, should probably know a good levatrice (midwife).
Synonyms of midwife
Forms of midwife
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | midwives |
| alternative verb | midwive |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | midwifes |
| present participle | midwifing |
| past participle | midwifed |
| past | midwifed |
Origin of midwife
From Middle English midwif, corresponding to mid (“with”) + wif (“woman, wife, female”). It appears not to be entirely clear whether the original understanding was “with-woman” in the sense of “attending/assisting woman”, or “they who are with the woman” (namely the mother).
Words formed from midwife
Phrases with midwife
Questions about midwife
- What does midwife mean?
- Midwife means a person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth, but who is not a physician.
- What is midwife in Hindi?
- Midwife in Hindi is प्रसाविका (prasāvikā), जनाई (janāī), दाई (dāī). See Midwife meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is midwife?
- Midwife can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce midwife?
- Midwife is pronounced /ˈmɪd.waɪf/.
- What is the plural of midwife?
- The plural of midwife is midwives.
Words near midwife in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: midwife (page history and authors); midwife (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); midwife (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); દાઈ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଧାଈ (Odia) (page history and authors); midwife (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-midwife.wav.
Cite this entry: “midwife.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/midwife. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.