Table of Contents
Definition of Parent
(noun) An individual’s mother, father, or carer via adoption, blood (consanguinity), or fictiveness.
Examples of Parent
- Marge and Homer are the parents of Lisa, Maggie, and Bart on The Simpsons.
- Michelle and Barack Obama are the parents of Malia and Sasha.
Parent Pronunciation
Syllabification: par·ent
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /pAIR-uhnt/
- British English – /pEUH-ruhnt/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈpɛr(ə)nt/
- British English – /ˈpɛːrənt/
Usage Notes
- Plural: parents
- A biological parent is a genitor.
Related Quotations
- “Families of orientation, procreation, and cohabitation provide us with some of the most important roles we will assume in life. The nuclear family roles (such as parent, child, husband, wife, and sibling) combine with extended family roles (such as grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, and in-law) to form the kinship system” (Strong, Devault, and Cohen 2011:19).
- “[Inheritance is b]roadly defined as one’s initial starting point in life based on parental position, includes a set of cumulative nonmerit advantage for all except the poorest of the poor. These include enhanced childhood standards of living, differential access to cultural capital, differential access to social networks of power and influence, infusions of parental capital while parents are still alive, greater health and life expectancy, and the inheritance of bulk estates when parents die” (McNamee and Miller 2013:71).
Related Video
Additional Information
- Family and Kinship Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “parent” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
References
McNamee, Stephen J., and Robert K. Miller, Jr. 2013. The Meritocracy Myth. 3rd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Strong, Bryan, Christine DeVault, and Theodore F. Cohen. 2011. The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society. 11th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Cite the Definition of Parent
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “parent.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 23, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/parent/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
parent. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/parent/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “parent.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 23, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/parent/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“parent.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/parent/>.