Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use parentage in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun

Parentage means the identity and nature of one's parents, and in particular, the legitimacy of one's birth. Example: “English gentlemen, after all, do not discriminate against each other on the grounds of parentage, only of breeding.”

Examples of parentage by meaning

nounThe identity and nature of one's parents, and in particular, the legitimacy of one's birth.

  • 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
  • Annabel was, like the writer, of mixed parentage: half-English, half-Dutch, in her case.1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC

nounThe social quality of one's class in society.

  • 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

More sentences with parentage

  • The number that precedes each species is presented to help determine parentage of nothospecies (i.e., hybrids).2011, Arthur Haines, New England Wild Flower Society's Flora Novae Angliae: A Manual for the Identification of Native and Naturalized…. From the entry nothospecies
  • This specimen was of English parentage, was a professional burglar, a confirmed recidivist, and—since he habitually carried firearms—a potential homicide.1914, R. Austin Freeman, chapter 2, in The Uttermost Farthing. From the entry recidivist
  • The lot of hazardise, the which, with fear For dam and unmanned feebleness for sire, A cognate pair, begets its parentage.1908, John Clark, Hannibal: A Drama in Five Acts, page 34. From the entry hazardise
  • In smooth RP tones that belie his German parentage, he explains that none of his hachet jobs were written out of personal animosity.2016 April 9, Philip Oltermann, “Michael Hofmann: ‘English is basically a trap. It’s almost a language for spies’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry belie
  • There are inter-war bungalows, and they, too, have their parentage, tracing a genealogy to that Indian roadside hostel, the bangalo, the Gujerati meaning simply 'of Bengal'.2015, Fiona Farrell, The Villa at the Edge of the Empire, →ISBN, page 265. From the entry bangalo
  • Appion's praise of adultery recalls the love affairs of Zeus and other gods, and Libanus stresses the good parentage of Thersites, ugliest of the Greeks who fought against Troy.2014, Annette H. Tomarken, The Smile of Truth: The French Satirical Eulogy and Its Antecedents, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University…. From the entry invade
  • Her parentage has sometimes worked against her — she was repeatedly harassed at McCain events last year — but she chooses to portray her subjects as nondidactically as possible.2009 January 25, Elizabeth Jensen, “Born to the Left, Aiming Her Camera Right”, in New York Times. From the entry nondidactically
  • In some circumstances, children of mixed parentage form their own subsociety, as is true in India and adjacent countries where there are fairly large groups of Euro-Asians.1975, Ruth S. Cavan, Jordan T. Cavan, “Cultural Patterns, Functions, and Dysfunctions of Endogamy and Intermarriage”, in Ruth E. Albrecht…. From the entry subsociety
  • The princess, deserted and alone, shamed her parentage by joining the legion of adventureresses at Budapest, and fell lower and lower as her beauty gradually faded.1900 December 7, “The End of a Princess”, in Buffalo Evening News, volume XLI, number 47, Buffalo, N.Y., page 3, column 3. From the entry adventureress

Meaning of parentage

  1. noun The identity and nature of one's parents, and in particular, the legitimacy of one's birth.
  2. noun The social quality of one's class in society.
  3. noun Origin; derivation.

Full definition of parentage

Questions about parentage in a sentence

How do you use parentage in a sentence?
Parentage is used as a noun. For example: “English gentlemen, after all, do not discriminate against each other on the grounds of parentage, only of breeding.”
What is a short sentence with parentage?
“He is of dubious parentage.”
What does parentage mean?
Parentage means the identity and nature of one's parents, and in particular, the legitimacy of one's birth.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: parentage (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use parentage in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/parentage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.