Dictionaries › English

mother

Pronunciation: /ˈmʌð.ə/

The English word “mother” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, fostered, etc).
  2. A pregnant female; mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.
  3. A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
  4. A female ancestor.
  5. A source or origin.
  6. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind. (See mother of all.)
  7. A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.
  8. A term of address for one's wife.
  9. Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
  10. Any person or entity which performs mothering.
  11. Dregs, lees; a stringy, mucilaginous or film- or membrane-like substance (consisting of a culture of acetobacters) which develops in fermenting alcoholic liquids (such as wine, or cider), and turns the alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air.
  12. A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.
  13. The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
  14. The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
  15. Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.
  16. A disc produced from the electrotyped master, used in manufacturing phonograph records.
  17. A person who is admired, respected, or looked up to within a particular fandom or community; see also: serve cunt

verb

  1. To give birth to or produce (as its female parent) a child. (Compare father.)
  2. To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.
  3. To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar”).

Etymology

From Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-West Germanic *mōder, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Doublet of Madeira, mata, mater, matrix, and matter. Some have proposed that the "dregs" sense is from Middle Dutch modder (“filth”), from Proto-Germanic *muþraz (“sediment”), but modder is not known in this meaning. On the other hand, words for…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “mother” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.