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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

With Noah being a Manhunter, it turned out that he and John were dealing with similar questions around lineage and legacy and nature versus nurture.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 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

State-backed funds also wrote checks, heeding Beijing’s call to nurture homegrown AI companies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

“To nurture the Earth and spread love to all those who live on it. I imagine she’d be disappointed in us, if she could see how we’ve distanced ourselves from humankind.”

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

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

The domestic game nurtures talent and its importance to the sport in our country should not be underestimated.

From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2024

She notes how on one hand the fruit nurtures desire, while on the other it purges memory like a poison.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2024

“She’s the mother of the plants and nurtures all of them, and I’m the builder,” Johnsen said.

From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024

It is someone who raises and nurtures you.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

This trend nurtured the emergence of PWCs with two or more seats, high-capacity gas tanks and extra cargo capacity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026

While the career of some talented prospects is carefully nurtured, Teasdale may not have been as well protected.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

“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

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

For three years she must have nurtured a feeling for him, kept it hidden, nourished it with fantasy or embellished it in her stories.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

The report said "children were cared for in a comfortable, welcoming and homely environment" and "were cared for with warmth, kindness and a nurturing approach".

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

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

“I’ve been able to focus on patient care, research and teaching knowing that my child is thriving in a nurturing learning environment.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 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

The recommendation of the research department was that Archie Bunker be rewritten as a soft-spoken and nurturing father.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

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