- (of a woman or female animal) having a baby or young animal developing inside her/its body
- My wife is pregnant.
- pregnant with… I was pregnant with our third child at the time.
- a heavily pregnant woman (= one whose baby is nearly ready to be born)
- to get/become/fall pregnant
- He got his girlfriend pregnant and they're getting married.
- She's six months pregnant.
Collocations ChildrenChildrenHaving a baby/child- want a baby/a child/kids
- start a family
- conceive/be expecting/be going to have a baby/child
- miss your period
- become/get/be/find out that you are pregnant
- have a baby/a child/kids/a son/a daughter/twins/a family
- have a normal/a difficult/an unwanted pregnancy; an easy/a difficult/a home birth
- be in/go into/induce labour (especially US English) labor
- have/suffer/cause a miscarriage
- give birth to a child/baby/daughter/son/twins
- bring up/ (especially North American English) raise a child/family
- care for/ (especially British English) look after a baby/child/kid
- change (British English) a nappy/(North American English) a diaper/a baby
- feed/breastfeed/bottle-feed a baby
- be entitled to/go on maternity/paternity leave
- go back/return to work after maternity leave
- need/find/get a babysitter/good quality affordable childcare
- balance/combine work and childcare/child-rearing/family life
- educate/teach/home-school a child/kid
- punish/discipline/spoil a child/kid
- adopt a baby/child/kid
- offer a baby for/put a baby up for adoption
- (especially British English) foster a child/kid
- be placed with/be raised by foster parents
Extra ExamplesTopics Life stagesb2- I discovered my cat was pregnant.
- She was pregnant by a former boyfriend.
- My sister is pregnant with twins.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- look
- become
- …
- heavily
- very
- visibly
- …
- by
- with
- six weeks, three months, etc. pregnant
- pregnant with something (formal) full of a quality or feeling
- Her silences were pregnant with criticism.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Latin praegnant-, probably from prae ‘before’ + the base of gnasci ‘be born’.
Idioms
See pregnant in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee pregnant in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englisha pregnant pause/silence
- an occasion when nobody speaks, although people are aware that there are feelings or thoughts to express
- There was a pregnant pause before she replied.
Check pronunciation:
pregnant