- [usually plural] a person’s father or mother
- He's still living with his parents.
- Sue and Ben have recently become parents.
- It can be difficult to be a good parent.
- her adoptive parents (= who have legally adopted her as their child)
- It's not easy being a foster parent (= who looks after a child for a period of time without legally adopting him/her) to these children.
- his biological/birth parents (= natural parents, not ones who adopt or foster)
- Emma is a lone parent with two children.
- More childcare options and more paid leave will improve the lives of working parents.
Extra ExamplesTopics Life stagesa1, Family and relationshipsa1- The study showed that children with involved parents do better at school.
- They have just become the proud parents of a baby girl.
- They may not be my biological parents but I consider them my real mum and dad.
- Concerned parents want more information about the safety of these products.
- More and more women are caring for both young children and elderly parents.
- He was born in Montana to Greek immigrant parents.
- They are all the children of divorced parents.
- My parents' generation didn't worry about sitting their kids in front of the TV.
- She spends every Christmas at her parents' house.
- It's important for parents and teachers to work together.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- married
- unmarried
- divorced
- …
- company
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- (often used as an adjective) an animal or a plant which produces other animals or plants
- the parent bird/tree
- (often used as an adjective) an organization that produces and owns or controls smaller organizations of the same type
- a parent bank and its subsidiaries
- The subsidiary eventually outgrew its parent company and took it over.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French, from Latin parent- ‘bringing forth’, from the verb parere. The verb dates from the mid 17th cent.
Check pronunciation:
parent