noun
(often in the plural) A person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).
(often in the plural) A person who has had a baby; this person in relation to their child or children.
A surrogate parent.
A third person who has provided DNA samples in an IVF procedure in order to alter faulty genetic material.
(obsolete) A relative.
The source or origin of something.
(biology) An organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.
(attributive) Sponsor, supporter, owner, protector.
(computing) The object from which a child or derived object is descended; a node superior to another node.
(physics) The nuclide that decays into a daughter nuclide.
verb
To act as parent, to raise or rear.
(programming) To provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.