engender
Americanverb (used with object)
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engenders,
present (3rd person singular)
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engendered,
past participle, past
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engendering
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
engenders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
engendered,
past participle, past
-
engendering
present participle
verb
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(tr) to bring about or give rise to; produce or cause
-
to be born or cause to be born; bring or come into being
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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engendersimple
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engenderssimple
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have engenderedperfect
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has engenderedperfect
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am engenderingprogressive
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are engenderingprogressive
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is engenderingprogressive
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have been engenderingperfect progressive
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has been engenderingperfect progressive
Past
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engenderedsimple
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had engenderedperfect
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was engenderingprogressive
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were engenderingprogressive
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had been engenderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of engender
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Old French engendrer, from Latin ingenerāre, from in- en- 1 + generāre “to beget” ( see generate)
Explanation
Engender is a fancy way of saying "to make happen," like when you engender the spirit of teamwork and cooperation by encouraging others and doing your share of the group's work. The verb engender has nothing to do with being male or female, though originally, it did mean "beget, procreate." Today, engender means "to produce or bring about." When students come to class prepared, meaning they've read their assignment, this engenders better class discussions, just as mutual trust and the desire to help each other engenders a meaningful friendship.
Vocabulary lists containing engender
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"This will hopefully engender trust with those organizations that are responsible for preserving these historic documents."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
It could engender pride and joy at your stealthy maneuvers, indifference, resentment or using the friendship as collateral for a loan.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
Not only can the word cure generate expectations that may not be met and engender disappointment, he says, but it could also have unforeseen practical implications.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026
“Judges should not have to worry when they rule against the president that the ruling will engender real personal threats,” Vladeck concluded.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2026
If thinking were enough to engender the new science it would have begun not with Galileo but with the fourteenth-century philosopher Nicholas Oresme.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Sustained success engenders unity, and new traditions will emerge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
He says the hope it engenders can not only help people cope emotionally with a cancer diagnosis but can even motivate them to seek treatment.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026
And all of this neglect engenders heartache as much as it does violence, creating a cyclical link between the two that “Bugonia” sits firmly in the center of.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2025
Deciding what content is acceptable on social media platforms "engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line," X said.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2025
The silence this stigma engenders among family members, neighbors, friends, relatives, co-workers, and strangers is perhaps the most painful—yet least acknowledged—aspect of the new system of control.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Equally, the need for professors and instructors engendered by the college boom created its own class of intellectuals and intellectual hangers-on.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2026
These include the shifts in audience habits engendered by the pandemic and the explosion of streaming, which has seen viewers choosing to stay on the couch.
From Barron's ● Apr. 13, 2026
Now that these activities and the protests they have engendered have resulted in multiple deaths, the administration and its allies are further undermining trust by their public response to the incidents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 26, 2026
For some, this has engendered a sense of paralysis.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2025
The impossible excitement that this engendered in Baby Kochamma wasn’t hard to understand.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
And Kenny Scharf’s cartoon-infused painting and sculpture are paeans to arrested development that are about as capable of engendering childlike wonder as a tax return.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
The fact that Tilly Norwood and the company behind ChatGPT are simultaneously engendering such controversy is not a coincidence: This is an existential moment for human-created entertainment as we know it.
From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2025
The stadium’s engendering change all right, but the cost feels too high, destabilizing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2024
At the same time, she said, women are afraid to speak out publicly for fear of losing sponsors or engendering a social-media backlash.
From Washington Times ● May 2, 2023
The crowds of novices being escorted to the top for a fee, huffed Sir Edmund, “were engendering disrespect for the mountain.”
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
