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)
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engenders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
engendered,
past participle, past
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engendering
present participle
verb
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(tr) to bring about or give rise to; produce or cause
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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
“The happiest workers can engender similar emotions in their customers, but they are also better at their jobs,” said the report.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 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
“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
“The level of chaos and fear it engenders appears to be a feature here, not a bug.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 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
She engenders compassion as Elisabeth grapples with her aging body, and a scene where she is enfeebled and struggles to get out of a chair is both achingly painful and achingly funny.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024
Voldemort’s expression remained impassive as he said, “Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies. You must know this, Dumbledore.”
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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
It also threatens to upend decades of U.S. foreign policy under which Washington engendered goodwill with allies by protecting sea lanes and serving as a guarantor of the free trade of oil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
That aspect of copyright law engendered a lengthy dispute waged by the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle against creative artists wishing to put Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson into new works.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
I thought about taking advantage of the good will I’d engendered and telling her about the job situation, but I didn’t want to spoil her evening.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
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
Occasionally, I wished that the emphasis would have shifted more to the drama than to the religious feeling it was engendering in the company.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2023
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
He added as a self-evident proposition, engendering low spirits, “But you can’t marry, you know, while you’re looking about you.”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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.
