Definition of "parent" in English

noun

1. (often in the plural) A person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).

   • After both her parents were killed in a forest fire, Sonia was adopted by her aunt and uncle.

2. (often in the plural) A person who has had a baby; this person in relation to their child or children.

3. A surrogate parent.

4. A third person who has provided DNA samples in an IVF procedure in order to alter faulty genetic material.

5. (obsolete) A relative.

6. The source or origin of something.

7. (biology) An organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.

8. (attributive) Sponsor, supporter, owner, protector.

9. (computing) The object from which a child or derived object is descended; a node superior to another node.

10. (physics) The nuclide that decays into a daughter nuclide.

verb

1. To act as parent, to raise or rear.

2. (programming) To provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.