nurture

American  

[nur-cher] / ˈnɜr tʃər /

verb (used with object)

• nurtures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• nurtured,
  past participle,  past
• nurturing
  present participle

1. 

   to feed and protect.

   to nurture one's offspring.

2. to support and encourage, as during the period of training or development; foster.

   to nurture promising musicians.

3. to bring up; train; educate.

---

noun

1. rearing, upbringing, training, education, or the like.

2. development.

   the nurture of young artists.

3. something that nourishes; nourishment; food.

nurture British  

/ ˈnɜːtʃə /

noun

1. the act or process of promoting the development, etc, of a child

2. something that nourishes

3. biology the environmental factors that partly determine the structure of an organism See also nature

---

verb

1. to feed or support

2. to educate or train

Synonym Usage

See nurse.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nurturer
  noun
• nurturable
  adjective
• nurtureless
  adjective
• unnurtured
  adjective
• well-nurtured
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• nurturing
  present
• nurtured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• nurture
  simple
• nurtures
  simple
• have nurtured
  perfect
• has nurtured
  perfect
• am nurturing
  progressive
• are nurturing
  progressive
• is nurturing
  progressive
• have been nurturing
  perfect progressive
• has been nurturing
  perfect progressive

Past

• nurtured
  simple
• had nurtured
  perfect
• was nurturing
  progressive
• were nurturing
  progressive
• had been nurturing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will nurture
  simple
• will have nurtured
  perfect
• will be nurturing
  progressive
• will have been nurturing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of nurture

First recorded in 1300–50; (noun) Middle English norture, from Middle French, variant of nourriture, from Late Latin nūtrītūra “a nourishing,” equivalent to Latin nūtrīt(us) (past participle of nūtrīre “to feed”) + -ūra noun suffix; see nourish, -ure; (verb) derivative of the noun

Explanation

If you plant a seed, water it daily and give it lots of light, you nurture it until it is ready to be transplanted outside. When you nurture a person or thing, you care for it and help it to grow. After a fight with your friend, you may have to nurture the relationship a little until you're close again. Use the phrase "nature versus nurture" to help you remember the word. Nature is a baby just out of the womb. Nurture is how that baby is raised or taken care of. Once the child is older, you may wonder if its love of reading is nature or nurture — is it natural born or is it because you read to the baby every night.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nurture nurtures nurtured nurturing

Remember, the information you provide doesn’t have to be deep in order for it to nurture trust.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026

On stage, Rhys dedicated his second award "to the great and good people of Wales, who were as much a nurture as anyone else".

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

"But the brain is not a blank slate that gets trained by experience. It is a mix of nature and nurture, and the nature is that pre-wired architecture."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026

Rounds three, four, and five yielded backups and talent to nurture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

The garden, meant to nurture, had become a deathtrap.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Conventional wisdom now has it that Hollywood no longer creates and nurtures young stars in the way it once did.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2025

He correctly wagered that allowing the audience to sit with one of his families inside their living space as they sort life challenges nurtures understanding and empathy.

From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2025

He identifies quality and nurtures it, especially in players, who are helped by relentless and specific video analysis, with Ollie Watkins a particular beneficiary.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2024

Berlin’s international reputation as a liberal, relaxed city that nurtures artists’ freedom to express whatever they want is under threat.

From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2024

It is someone who raises and nurtures you.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

“Through the generational musical voices that he nurtured, he created the soundtrack to all our lives, his legacy has been with us at all our greatest moments.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

Read: Hardcore gamers nurtured Nvidia and the AI boom.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

This demonstrated that the neuropeptides were not merely associated with caregiving but could actively influence whether an ant nurtured larvae or went searching for food.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026

In many countries, football is not just a national sport but an obsession nurtured over decades.

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026

Odessa was hardly the only town that nurtured football and cherished it and went crazy over it.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger

The world’s most valuable company, Nvidia, is nurturing an entirely new asset class to keep chip sales humming.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

In this week’s episode of The Envelope podcast, Chase Infiniti discusses her meteroic rise, her Emmy nomination for “The Testaments” and nurturing the ambition to become an actor since age 10.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

He reduces Bourdain to a zygote who simply needed enough nurturing to become his older, cooler self, when he could, instead, read between the lines to find what makes young Tony special.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

Complicating matters, he has never been particularly generous or nurturing, and he has no spouse, children or other immediate next of kin.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

She’s possessive in the most nurturing, big-sister way possible.

From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera