mother

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmʌðə(ɹ)/, [ˈmɐðə(ɹ)]
• (General American) IPA: /ˈmʌðɚ/
• Hyphenation: moth‧er

Alternative forms

• mither (Scotland and Northern England)

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. A female parent, sometimes especially a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, or fostered).
   • I am visiting my mother today.
   • The lioness was a mother of four cubs.
2. A female who has given birth to a baby; this person in relation to her child or children.
   • My sister-in-law has just become a mother for the first time.
   • He had something of his mother in him.
3. A pregnant female, possibly as a shortened form of mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.
   • Nutrients and oxygen obtained by the mother are conveyed to the fetus.
4. A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
5. (figuratively) A female ancestor.
6. (figuratively) A source or origin.
   • The Mediterranean was mother to many cultures and languages.
7. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind. (See mother of all.)
8. (dated, when followed by a surname) A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.
   • Mother Smith, meet my cousin, Doug Jones.
9. (dated) A term of address for one's wife.
10. (figuratively) Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
11. (figuratively) Any person or entity which performs mothering.
12. Dregs, lees; a stringy, mucilaginous or film- or membrane-like substance (consisting 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.
    • pieces of mother, adding mother to vinegar
13. (rail transport) A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.
14. The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
15. The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
16. (obsolete) Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.
17. A disc produced from the electrotyped master, used in manufacturing phonograph records.

Verb

mother (third-person singular simple present mothers, present participle mothering, simple past and past participle mothered)

1. (chiefly transitive) To give birth to or produce (as its female parent) a child. (Compare father.)
2. (transitive) To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.
3. (transitive) To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar”).
   • mothered oil, mothered vinegar, mothered wine
4. (intransitive, of an alcohol) To develop mother.

Alternative forms

• mutha

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. (euphemistic, mildly vulgar, slang) Motherfucker.
2. (euphemistic, colloquial) A striking example.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɒθə(ɹ)/

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. Alternative form of moth-er

Anagrams

• thermo-

Noun

mother

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of moder