Word.ws English Dictionary

parentage

parentage noun: the identity and nature of one's parents, and in particular, the legitimacy of one's birth.

Noun

parentage (countable and uncountable, plural parentages)

  1. The identity and nature of one's parents, and in particular, the legitimacy of one's birth.
    • I am a Lord, for so my deedes ſhall prooue,
      And yet a ſhepheard by my Parentage: […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • English gentlemen, after all, do not discriminate against each other on the grounds of parentage, only of breeding.1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
  2. The social quality of one's class in society.
    • My fortunes parentage — good parentage — To equal mine! — was it not thus? What say you?c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
    • Mr. Worthington. Second son. We shall find better. He is of dubious parentage.2020 December 25, Chris Van Dusen, “Diamond of the First Water”, in Bridgerton, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Anthony Bridgerton
  3. (figuratively) Origin; derivation.

parentage meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

parentage in Tamil

பெற்றோர் பொறுப்பு, நிலை, பெற்றோர்தன்மை

parentage in Urdu

ولدیت

parentage in Bengali

কারো বংশপরিচয়, পিতামাতার পরিচয়

parentage in Malayalam

പിതൃത്വം, കുലം, ഗോത്രം, വംശം

Examples of parentage in a sentence

  • The number that precedes each species is presented to help determine parentage of nothospecies (i.e., hybrids).
  • This specimen was of English parentage, was a professional burglar, a confirmed recidivist, and—since he habitually carried firearms—a potential homicide.
  • The lot of hazardise, the which, with fear For dam and unmanned feebleness for sire, A cognate pair, begets its parentage.

All 12 example sentences with parentage

Forms of parentage

pluralparentages

Origin of parentage

From Middle French, from Old French parentage.

Words formed from parentage

Questions about parentage

What does parentage mean?
Parentage means the identity and nature of one's parents, and in particular, the legitimacy of one's birth.
What is parentage in Tamil?
Parentage in Tamil is பெற்றோர் பொறுப்பு, நிலை, பெற்றோர்தன்மை. See Parentage meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is parentage?
Parentage is a noun.
What is the plural of parentage?
The plural of parentage is parentages.

Words near parentage in the dictionary

  1. parent-teacher organization
  2. parent-teacher organizations
  3. parent-teacher-student association
  4. parent-teacher-student associations
  5. parent-to-be
  6. parentage
  7. parentages
  8. parental
  9. Parental Accompaniment
  10. parental alienation
  11. parental alienation syndrome

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: parentage (page history and authors); parentage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parentage (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parentage (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parentage (Malayalam 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.

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