nurture
/ˈnɜːɹ.t͡ʃəɹ/
nurture noun: the act of nourishing or nursing; tender care.
Noun
nurture (countable and uncountable, plural nurtures)
- The act of nourishing or nursing; tender care
- Synonyms:
- upbringing, raising, education, training
- That which nourishes; food; diet.
- Other great houses there bee of the English in Ireland, which thorough licentious conversing with the Irish, or marrying, or fostering with them, or lacke of meete nurture, or other such unhappy occasions, have degendred from their auncient dignities, and are now growne as Irish, as O-hanlans...1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […]...
- The environmental influences that contribute to a person’s development (as opposed to "nature").
- A Deuill, a borne-Deuill, on whoſe nature / Nurture can neuer ſticke :1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- […]a man neither by nature nor by nurture wiſe.1649, J[ohn] Milton, “Upon His Retirement from ’’Westminster’’”, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, page 59
- The act or process of encouraging the growth or development of something.
- The problem is aggravated by the fact that much of the gay sub-culture is not conducive to the nurture of the radical ego integrity of which Erikson speaks.1976 February 7, Philip Gambone, “Coming Out: The Gay Identity Process”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 4
Verb
nurture (third-person singular simple present nurtures, present participle nurturing, simple past and past participle nurtured)
- To nourish or nurse.
- Look where he would, some heap of ruins afforded him rich promise of a working off; the whole town appeared to have been ploughed, and sown, and nurtured by most genial weather; and a goodly harvest was at hand.1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 70.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 344
- To encourage, especially the growth or development of something.
- The relationships between universal norms and specific norms nurture the development of international law.2009, UNESCO, The United Nations World Water Development Report – N° 3 - 2009 – Freshwater and International Law (the Interplay between Universal, Regional and Basin Perspectives), page 10, →ISBN
nurture meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
nurture in Hindi
- पालन-पोषण करें, पालन-पोषण करना
nurture in Tamil
- பயிற்றுவிப்பு, பேணு, பேணி வளர், பேணி வளர்ப்பு, ஊட்டமளி
nurture in Urdu
- nurture, upbringing
- پرورش parvariś
nurture in Bengali
- প্রতিপালন, প্রশিক্ষণ, শিশুশিক্ষা, প্রতিপালন করা, শিক্ষাদান করা
More languagesFewer languages
- nurture in Malayalam
- വളർത്തൽ, പരിപാലനം, രക്ഷണം, പരിലാളനം
- nurture in Kannada
- ಸಾಕು, ಬೆಳಸು, ಆರಯ್ಸು, ಪೋಷಿಸು
- nurture in Punjabi
- ਪਾਲਣ-ਪੋਸ਼ਣ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- nurture in Gujarati
- સંભાળવું sambhāḷvũ
- nurture in Nepali
- पालनपोषण गर्ने
- nurture in Arabic
- تنشئَة, تَرْبِيَة tarbiya
- nurture in Vietnamese
- nuôi dưỡng
Examples of nurture in a sentence
- “There was just this opportunity with a father-son dynamic to really nurture,” she said.
- A key step in building neuroinclusive workplaces is creating, expanding, and nurturing our professional networks.
- That is the process we are witnessing now: the steady nurturing of a stab-in-the-back myth for Brexit.
Synonyms of nurture
Antonyms
Forms of nurture
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nurtures |
| alternative form (obsolete) | nouriture |
| alternative form (obsolete) | nutriture |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | nurtures |
| present participle | nurturing |
| past participle | nurtured |
| past | nurtured |
Origin of nurture
From Middle English norture, noriture, from Old French norriture, norreture, from Late Latin nutritura (“nourishment”), from Latin nutrire (“to nourish”).
Words formed from nurture
Phrases with nurture
Words that rhyme with nurture
Questions about nurture
- What does nurture mean?
- Nurture means the act of nourishing or nursing; tender care.
- What is nurture in Hindi?
- Nurture in Hindi is पालन-पोषण करें, पालन-पोषण करना. See Nurture meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is nurture?
- Nurture can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce nurture?
- Nurture is pronounced /ˈnɜːɹ.t͡ʃəɹ/.
- What is the plural of nurture?
- The plural of nurture is nurtures.
Words near nurture in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nurture (page history and authors); nurture (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nurture (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پرورش (Urdu) (page history and authors); nurture (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nurture (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nurture (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nurture (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); સંભાળવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); nurture (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)-Mélange a trois-nurture.wav.
Cite this entry: “nurture.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nurture. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.