sire

American  

[sahy^uhr] / saɪər /

noun

• sires
  plural

1. the male parent of a quadruped.

2. a respectful term of address, now used only to a male sovereign.

3. Archaic.

   1. a father or forefather.

   2. a person of importance or in a position of authority, as a lord.

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verb (used with object)

• sires,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sired,
  past participle,  past
• siring
  present participle

1. to beget; procreate as the father.

sire British  

/ saɪə /

noun

1. a male parent, esp of a horse or other domestic animal

2. a respectful term of address, now used only in addressing a male monarch

3. obsolete a man of high rank

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verb

1. (tr) (esp of a domestic animal) to father; beget

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sireless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sires
  plural

Participles

• siring
  present
• sired
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sire
  simple
• sires
  simple
• have sired
  perfect
• has sired
  perfect
• am siring
  progressive
• are siring
  progressive
• is siring
  progressive
• have been siring
  perfect progressive
• has been siring
  perfect progressive

Past

• sired
  simple
• had sired
  perfect
• was siring
  progressive
• were siring
  progressive
• had been siring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sire
  simple
• will have sired
  perfect
• will be siring
  progressive
• will have been siring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sire

1175–1225; Middle English < Old French (nominative singular) < Vulgar Latin *seior, for Latin senior senior (compare French monsieur originally, my lord, with sieur < *seiōr-, oblique stem of *seior )

Explanation

A sire is an animal's father. A newborn foal might look very much like his sire, with a white stripe on his brown face. Every once in a while, the word sire is used for a human — your dad is your sire — but it's much more common to find this word describing an animal's male parent. It's also a verb, meaning "to father," as in "My prize pig sires the cutest piglets." In the old days, you'd also use sire to directly address a nobleman or a king. It comes from the Latin word senior, "elder."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sire sires sired siring

Those who doubt So Happy point to his breeding: His sire, Runhappy, was a champion sprinter not known for producing horses who can run more than a mile.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2026

Three years on, the Purosangue remains an astonishing presence on any street, a provocation, an outrage, a moral panic—indeed, sire, very like a Ferrari.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026

The tendency of one sire to spread a harmful mutation among its descendants even has a name, “the popular sire effect.”

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2023

A corner stall in the stallion barn still bears Secretariat’s name and that of his sire, Bold Ruler, among those of other elites who have inhabited the space.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2023

The colt was a descendant of the mighty Man o’ War through his sire, the brilliantly fast, exceptionally handsome Hard Tack, but his stunted build reflected none of the beauty and breadth of his forebears.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

“I’ve had a lot of horses that were good horses but you just don’t know if they’re going to be sires or not,” Baffert said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2025

The mare was sired by Northern Dancer, the first Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby in 1964 who went on to become one of the sport’s greatest sires.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2023

Rickard said this compared to recently frozen semen from 19 sires used to inseminate 1,048 ewes, of which 618 were successfully impregnated.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2019

At the Plant and Animal Genome meeting in San Diego, California, in January, Oatley presented the results of his efforts to transplant sperm-producing stem cells into his surrogate pig sires.

From Nature ● Mar. 13, 2019

Whatever their sires or their grandsires might have been back in Westeros before their exile, the men of the Golden Company were sellswords now, and no sellsword could be trusted.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

On his deathbed, however, he had a change of heart and left his fortune to the creation of a refuge for children like the one he sired and abandoned.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025

Mouse pups sired by dysbiotic fathers showed significantly lower birth weights and an increased rate of postnatal mortality.

From Science Daily ● May 1, 2024

Before coming to the zoo, Otto lived in a safari park in Denmark and he sired six calves during his time at Colchester.

From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2024

The colt, sired by Into Mischief, considered one of the top stallions in the world, won his only start Aug. 12 by 4¼ lengths.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2023

The “Big Three” pact had only been broken twice—once when Zeus sired Thalia, once when Poseidon sired me.

From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan

Paramount Global has created numerous spin-offs of its main cable channels, with Nickelodeon siring five programming offspring, Nick Jr., Nick at Nite, TeenNick, Nicktoons and Nick Music.

From Reuters ● Sep. 14, 2023

Tom, he said, had survived a poisoning attempt and spent years siring a generation of truffle dogs before dying in Mr. Tomassetti’s arms.

From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2023

There would likely still have been a sectarian power struggle over a weakened state, siring a civil war and brewing regional tensions.

From Slate ● Mar. 27, 2018

When Tom swaps Rachel for Anna as queen of Westchester, siring infant Evie but a year later, such rancor becomes even more understandable given the protagonist’s battle with infertility.

From Salon ● Oct. 14, 2016

But Louie, the instant her uncle stopped, broke into a siring of questions, shrill and breathless, her face quite white, her eyes glittering.

From The History of David Grieve by Mrs. Humphry Ward