Noun

Singular parent

Plural parents

parent (plural parents)

1. One of the two persons from whom one is immediately biologically descended; a mother or father.
2. A person who acts as a parent in rearing a child. (adoptive parent, foster parent)
3. (biology) An organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.
4. The source or origin of something.
5. A group from which another group is formed, or which completely controls a subordinate group. (parent company)
6. (computing, object oriented computer programming) The object from which a child or derived object is descended.

Quotations

person from whom one is descended

• 1597, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet i Prologue

  From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows / Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

• 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest i 2

  I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated to closeness and the bettering of my mind with that, which, but by being so retir’d, O’er-priz’d all popular rate, in my false brother awak’d an evil nature; and my trust, like a good parent, did beget of him a falsehood.

• 1611, King James Version of the Bible (Authorized Version), John 9:19–20

  And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:

source or origin

• 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre ii 3

  Whereby I see that Time’s the king of men, He’s both their parent, and he is their grave.

Synonyms

• (person from whom one is descended): progenitor
• (computing: object from which a child is descended): mother

Antonyms

• (person from whom one is descended): child, offspring
• (computing: object from which a child is descended): child

Hyponyms

• (person from whom one is descended): father, mother

Derived terms

• parentage
• parental
• parenthood
• parent company

A parent is a caretaker of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the mother or the father figure of a child (NOTE: "child" refers to offspring, not age). Children can have more than one or two parents, but they can only have two biological parents. Biological parents consist of the male who sired the child and the female who gave birth to the child. In all human societies, the biological mother and father are both responsible for raising their young. However, this is not always the case. An adoptive parent is one who nurtures and raises the offspring of the biological parents but are not actually biologically related to the child. Children without adoptive parents can be raised by their grandparents or other family members.

Mother

Father

Like mothers, fathers may be categorised according to their biological, social or legal relationship with the child. Historically, the biological relationship paternity has been determinative of fatherhood. However, proof of paternity has been intrinsically problematic and so social rules often determined who would be regarded as a father e.g. the husband of the mother.