Meaning of parent in English

parent

noun [ C ]

/ˈpeə.rənt/ us

/ˈper.ənt/

parent noun [C] (MOTHER/FATHER)

a mother or father of a person or an animal, or someone who looks after a person in the same way that a parent does:

I'm going to meet Richard's parents for the first time this weekend.

Colorado is currently experiencing a shortage of foster parents.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

your parents

parentMy parents died when I was young.
biological parentSome children are raised by grandparents or other family members, instead of their biological parents.
adoptive parentWhen he was 7 months old, his mother gave him up to his adoptive parents.
motherHave you met my mother?
fatherMy father fully supports my life choices.
mumUK My mum and dad go there every year.

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More examples

One of the joys of being a parent is watching the child's character develop.
As a parent you try to create a stable home environment for your children to grow up in.
Children need lots of encouragement from their parents.
My parents were rather annoyed that I hadn't told them about the accident.
He finds it extremely difficult being a single parent.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Parents & children

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parent noun [C] (COMPANY)

(also parent company)

a company that owns one or more other companies:

The subsidiary has issued shares that are guaranteed by its parent.

The parent company is expected to spend $50 million in advertising this year.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Mergers & acquisitions

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parent

verb [ I or T ]

/ˈpeə.rənt/ us/ˈper.ənt/

to raise a child as their parent:

I think he was parented very well.

Graham has parented about 65 foster children and adopted 11 of them.

A lot of adoptive families are second-time-around families, people who've parented before and realize they can do it.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Parenting & caring for children

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(Definition of parent from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

parent | American Dictionary

parent

noun [ C ]

/ˈpeər·ənt, ˈpær-/

a person who gives birth to or raises a child:

His parents live in New York.

biology

A parent is also any animal or plant that produces another.

parental

adjective [ not gradable ] us

/pəˈren·təl/

parental guidance

parenthood

noun [ U ] us

/ˈpeər·əntˌhʊd, ˈpær-/

Just barely newlyweds, they now have to confront the harsh realities of parenthood.

(Definition of parent from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

parent | Business English

parent

noun [ C ]

FINANCE

/ˈpeərənt/ us

→ parent company

(Definition of parent from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of parent

parent

A small core of activists, men and women, came from families in which both parents were active in the labour movement.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The level of religious practice was much higher among the activists' parents than it was for the respondents themselves.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We all agree that it is wrong for parents to have favourites among their children, loving some more than others.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One is not committed to one's friend, one's parents, one's spouse, one's profession, and one's nation in the same always-absolute way.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By 13 days of age, 10 % of the birds have already acquired enough information about the parents to show a stable preference for them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

I also need to liaise with 18 feeder primary and high schools, and maintain links with parents, the community and employers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On the other hand my parents had also taught me something useful.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Seventeenth-century jurisprudence regarded abandonment as lawful, provided that it did not cause the child's death and that the parents were poor or honour was endangered.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Given the huge life-overlaps in modern family relationships, how do children influence parents, siblings each other and so on?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

You can say we are not used to it because our parents never sunbathed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The risk factor is high, teachers and even parents sometimes jealously interfere, orchestras can take umbrage at being asked to work with prodigies.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

None of the children wanted to go and live with their birth parents, but simply to keep contact.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In other words the personalities and character of the two sets of parents are important in maintaining a constructive relationship.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The goal was to uncover the ideologies that parents perceive to guide present speaking practices with their children.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Are we to teach parents how to use nonimmediate language to prepare children better for school?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of parent

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with parent

parent

These are words often used in combination with parent.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

adopting parent

If the employee is subsequently not put on the register, it can cause difficulties in the workplace for the potential adopting parent.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

adoptive parent

There was, nevertheless, a sizable minority of institutionalized children who appeared to display a secure attachment relationship with their adoptive parent at 4 years.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

aged parent

I have outlined the responsibilities that a woman may have towards her husband, towards her children or towards an aged parent.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with parent

Translations of parent

in Chinese (Traditional)

父親, 母親, 母公司，總公司…

Meaning of parent in English

parent noun [C] (MOTHER/FATHER)

parent noun [C] (COMPANY)

parent | American Dictionary

parental

parenthood

parent | Business English

Examples of parent

Collocations with parent

parent

Translations of parent

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