parent
/ˈpɛəɹənt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈpɛːɹənt/
parent noun: a person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).
Noun
parent (plural parents)
- A person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).
- After both her parents were killed in a forest fire, Sonia was adopted by her aunt and uncle.
- my trust / Like a good parent, did beget of him / A falsehood in it's contrarie, as great / As my trust was, which had indeede no limit, / A confidence sans bound.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...
- Synonyms:
- genitor, progenitor
- A person who has had a baby; this person in relation to their child or children.
- A surrogate parent.
- A third person who has provided DNA samples in an IVF procedure in order to alter faulty genetic material.
- A relative.
- The source or origin of something.
- Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry.1785, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
- Indolence and unalimentary food are the parents of this disease; but to neither are Indians accustomed.1789, The Critical Review, Or, Annals of Literature, volume 68, page 341
- An organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.
- Sponsor, supporter, owner, protector.
- The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.1944, Miles Burton, The Three Corpse Trick, chapter 5
- A parent company.
- The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them[…]is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.[…]current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither...2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
- The object from which a child or derived object is descended; a node superior to another node.
- The nuclide that decays into a daughter nuclide.
Verb
parent (third-person singular simple present parents, present participle parenting, simple past and past participle parented)
- To act as parent, to raise or rear.
- However, even with money and caregivers, the child is left without a parent and most likely without a plan for their emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being. A time will come when you will no longer be able to parent your child, period.2006, Natalie Bandlow, Parent to Child the Guide: How to Create a Comprehensive And Meaningful Journal to Prepare Your Child for Life, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 1
- To provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.
Proper noun capitalized: Parent
Parent
- A surname.
parent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
parent in Hindi
- person from whom one is descended
- माता-पिता mātā-pitā, माँ-बाप mā̃-bāp
- person who acts as a parent in rearing a child — see also guardian
- अभिभावक abhibhāvak
parent in Tamil
- பெற்றோர்களில் ஒருவர், தாய் அல்லது தந்தை, ஒன்றின் மூலம், ஆதி
parent in Marathi
- parent
- पालक pālak
parent in Urdu
- person from whom one is descended
- والِدَین vālidain, والِد vālid, والِدَہ vālida, ماں باپ mā̃ bāp
More languagesFewer languages
- parent in Bengali
- পিতামাতা pitamata
- parent in Telugu
- పేరెంట్
- parent in Malayalam
- രക്ഷിതാവ് rakṣitāvŭ, ഊ ū, ഊഃ ūḥ
- parent in Kannada
- ತಂದೆ, ತಾಯಿ, ಹೆತ್ತವರು
- parent in Gujarati
- પેરેન્ટ
- parent in Sinhala
- මව්පිය mawpiya
- parent in Tagalog
- magulang
- parent in Arabic
- وَالِد wālid, وَالِدَة wālida, وَالِدَان wālidān
- parent in Malay
- ibu bapa, emak ayah
- parent in Thai
- พ่อแม่ pɔ̂ɔ-mɛ̂ɛ
- parent in Vietnamese
- phụ huynh, mẹ
- parent in Myanmar
- မိဘ mi.bha.
- Kashmiri
- مول موج mōl mōj
Examples of parent in a sentence
- His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind […]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 9:19–20:
- The NHS is naturally pro-immunisation, reassuring parents that their babies can easily cope with these jabs.2005 August 24, Siobhan O'Neill, The Guardian:
Synonyms of parent
Antonyms
Forms of parent
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | parents |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | parents |
| present participle | parenting |
| past participle | parented |
| past | parented |
Origin of parent
From Middle English parent, borrowed from Anglo-Norman parent, Middle French parent, from Latin parentem, accusative of parēns (“parent”), present participle of pariō (“to breed, bring forth”).
Words formed from parent
- adoptive parent
- alloparent
- bioparent
- birthparent
- birth parent
- bonus parent
- buddy parent
- co-parent
- co-parent-in-law
- cottage parent
- curling parent
- Disney parent
- foreparent
- foster parent
- godparent
- gold star parent
- grandparent
- guideparent
- helicopter parent
- heliparent
- houseparent
- interparent
- iPad parent
- merparent
- midparent
- misparented
- multiparent
- noncustodial parent
- nonparent
- omniparent
- overparent
- oversharent
- parentage
- parental
- parent bug
- parent class
- parent company
- parent compound
- parentcraft
- parentdom
- parent drug
- parentectomy
- parentelic
- parenter
- parentese
- parenthood
- parenticide
- parentification
- parent-in-law
- parentish
- parentism
- parentland
- parent language
- parentless
- parentlike
- parentlock
- parently
- parentness
- parent nuclide
- parent-offspring conflict
Phrases with parent
- parent bugs
- solo parent
- parent drugs
- plant parent
- sugar parent
- pollen parent
- single parent
- parent classes
- parent trigger
- parent nuclides
- parent triggers
- snowplow parent
6 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about parent
- What does parent mean?
- Parent means a person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).
- What is parent in Hindi?
- Parent in Hindi is माता-पिता (mātā-pitā), माँ-बाप (mā̃-bāp), अभिभावक (abhibhāvak). See Parent meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use parent in a sentence?
- His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind […]
- What part of speech is parent?
- Parent can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce parent?
- Parent is pronounced /ˈpɛəɹənt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of parent?
- The plural of parent is parents.
Words near parent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: parent (page history and authors); Parent (page history and authors); parent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पालक (Marathi) (page history and authors); parent (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ഊ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); parent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parent (Gujarati, 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Nattes à chat-parent.wav, En-us-parent.ogg, en-au-pair.ogg.
Cite this entry: “parent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.