parent. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

parent

SYLLABICATION:	par·ent
PRONUNCIATION:	pârnt, pr-
NOUN:	1. One who begets, gives birth to, or nurtures and raises a child; a father or mother. 2. An ancestor; a progenitor. 3. An organism that produces or generates offspring. 4. A guardian; a protector. 5. A parent company. 6. A source or cause; an origin: Despair is the parent of rebellion.
VERB:	Inflected forms: par·ent·ed, par·ent·ing, par·ents
TRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To act as a parent to; raise and nurture: “A genitor who does not parent the child is not its parent” (Ashley Montagu). 2. To cause to come into existence; originate.
INTRANSITIVE VERB:	To act as a parent.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English, from Old French, from Latin parns, parent-, from past active participle of parere, to give birth. See per-¹ in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	parent·hood —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.