mother

¹ American  

[muhth-er] / ˈmʌð ər /

noun

1. a woman who has borne offspring; a female parent.

2. Often Mother one’s own female parent.

   I should give Mother a call today.

   Our mother did not approve of many of the shenanigans we got up to.

3. a mother-in-law, stepmother, foster mother, female adoptive parent, or female guardian.

4. Usually Mother a term of address for a female parent or a woman having or regarded as having the status, function, or authority of a female parent.

   Thank you for coming, Mother.

5. a woman providing care or exercising influence or authority like that of a female parent.

   The elderly widow next door was a mother to him.

6. the qualities characteristic of a mother, such as maternal affection, protectiveness, responsibility, etc..

   Sometimes the mother in her comes out and she'll remind her students to drive safely.

7. something that gives rise to something else; origin or source.

   Imagination is the mother of possibility.

8. a woman who originates or creates something.

   Marie Curie was the mother of radiography.

9. Ecclesiastical. Usually Mother a title of respect for certain female church leaders, such as heads of convents, bishops, or priests.

10. Mother, (in Neopaganism) the second form of the Goddess, represented as a mother or middle-aged woman and said to symbolize fertility and the flourishing stages of life and growth.

11. Mother, a title for something personified as an older woman.

    Mother Earth.

12. a term of familiar address for an old or elderly woman.

13. Slang. a euphemism for motherfucker.

14. Audio. (in disk recording) a mold from which stampers are made.

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adjective

1. being a female parent.

   I watched as the mother bird fed her baby.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of a mother.

   mother love.

3. learned or acquired from or as if from one's mother; native.

   After emigrating, he never really abandoned his mother culture.

4. bearing a relation like that of a mother, as in being the origin, source, leader, protector, etc..

   The mother company issues directives to all its affiliates.

   The server is the mother computer for the whole network.

verb (used with object)

• mothers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• mothered,
  past participle,  past
• mothering
  present participle

1. to be the mother, origin, or source of.

   She mothered two children.

2. to care for or protect like a mother; act maternally toward, sometimes in an excessive way: Stop mothering me!

   It’s in her nature to love and mother those around her.

   Stop mothering me!

   Synonyms:

   raise, mind, nurse, tend

3. to acknowledge oneself the author of; assume as one's own.

verb (used without object)

• mothers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• mothered,
  past participle,  past
• mothering
  present participle

1. to perform the tasks or duties of a female parent, sometimes in an excessive way; act maternally.

   She’s always wanted to mother.

idioms

1. mother of all, the greatest or most notable example of.

   Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has been called the mother of all mystery novels.

mother ² American  

[muhth-er] / ˈmʌð ər /

noun

1. a stringy, mucilaginous substance consisting of various bacteria, especially Acetobacter aceti, that forms on the surface of a fermenting liquid and converts ethanol to acetic acid, as in changing wine or cider to vinegar.

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mother ¹ British  

/ ˈmʌðə /

noun

1. 1. a female who has given birth to offspring

   2. ( as modifier )

      a mother bird

2. (often capital, esp as a term of address) a person's own mother

3. a female substituting in the function of a mother

4. archaic (often capital) a term of address for an old woman

5. 1. motherly qualities, such as maternal affection

      it appealed to the mother in her

   2. ( as modifier )

      mother love

   3. ( in combination )

      mothercraft

6. 1. a female or thing that creates, nurtures, protects, etc, something

   2. ( as modifier )

      mother church

      mother earth

7. a title given to certain members of female religious orders

   mother superior

8. Christian Science God as the eternal Principle

9. (modifier) native or innate

   mother wit

10. offensive short for motherfucker

11. to pour the tea

    I'll be mother

12. informal the greatest example of its kind

    the mother of all parties

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verb

1. to give birth to or produce

2. to nurture, protect, etc as a mother

mother ² British  

/ ˈmʌðə /

noun

1. Also called: mother of vinegar.  a stringy slime containing various bacteria that forms on the surface of liquids undergoing acetous fermentation. It can be added to wine, cider, etc to promote vinegar formation

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mother More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing mother

• necessity is the mother of invention

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• mothering
  noun
• motherlessness
  noun
• motherless
  adjective
• motherlike
  adjective
• mothery
  adjective
• unmothered
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• mothering
  present
• mothered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• mother
  simple
• mothers
  simple
• have mothered
  perfect
• has mothered
  perfect
• am mothering
  progressive
• are mothering
  progressive
• is mothering
  progressive
• have been mothering
  perfect progressive
• has been mothering
  perfect progressive

Past

• mothered
  simple
• had mothered
  perfect
• was mothering
  progressive
• were mothering
  progressive
• had been mothering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will mother
  simple
• will have mothered
  perfect
• will be mothering
  progressive
• will have been mothering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of mother¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English mother, moder, Old English mōdor; cognate with Dutch moeder, German Mutter, Old Norse mōthir; akin to Armenian mayr, Greek mḗtēr, mā́tēr, Irish máthair, Latin māter, Latvian māte, Persian mâdar, Russian mat', Sanskrit mātar-

Origin of mother²

First recorded in 1450–1500; probably special use of mother ¹, but perhaps another word, akin to Dutch modder “dregs,” Middle Low German moder “swampy land”; see mud

Explanation

A mother is a female parent: mothers nurture and mother children. It's also a term for an elderly woman or mother superior. Your mother is the woman who gave birth to you: mothers are parents, the female equivalent of a father. Besides biological mothers, there are stepmothers and adopted mothers: they all do mothering, which means taking care of children (or, sometimes, being overprotective of children). Oddly enough, a mother is also slimy substance that forms during the fermentation of wine or cider. But in any case, mothers give and sustain life.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mother mothers mothered mothering

Her mother grew up swimming in the ocean in Accra, Ghana.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

The Wall Street Journal was unable to reach Singh or her mother directly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

When Preston Harp arrived at the house, he said his mother wanted him to go along with the story that their father had died in his sleep.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

After the initial flip-flopping on whether the government would be able to exempt more prisoners, the mother of PC Harper told BBC Breakfast that the handling of the situation had been a "hash".

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

The mother began to protest, but the child pleaded, “It matches my shoes! I’ll wash it a hundred times!”

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

She wants more support for the victims of forced adoption - mothers, children and adoptive parents.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

Sehida Abdurahmanovic, a member of the main association of mothers in Srebrenica, said knowing he died suffering was some solace to victims' families, but his conviction was more enduring.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

And of course, there is the “motherhood penalty” — the phenomenon that women experience slower wage growth and career advancement once they become mothers.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

They were arguing instead that mothers and children deserve more care and support — from fathers, from employers, from society-at-large.

From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026

“Right, right, mothers crying, whatever,” May said, pulling herself up behind Jack, then turning around to help pull Phillip up.

From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley

Playing a vain, pitch-perfect vision of Los Angeles’ wickedness in “Maps to the Stars,” Julianne Moore mothered so hard she almost separated California right down the San Andreas fault line.

From Salon ● May 10, 2026

She mothered her 7-year-old daughter, Dariela, straining to distract her from the fact that her little brother was missing.

From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2024

She had mothered him since he turned up in her bilingual-education classroom in Washington, D.C., a scrawny 10-year-old fresh from El Salvador.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 18, 2021

Since being adopted, George has gone through what Tony describes as a "period of regression", during which he "fathered" and "mothered" a toy baby for about three months.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2020

The desert has mothered magic things before this.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Ms. Sampson dwells particularly on the author’s weakness for boyish geniuses in need of mothering.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Paulson was not mothering one single bit, delivering marble-mouthed, bottom-of-the-Ryan-Murphy barrel insults on “All’s Fair.”

From Salon ● May 10, 2026

Would my mothering improve before the baby was born?

From Slate ● May 10, 2026

After our fertility journey, 10 years of trying, me birthing this piece of art was me mothering my creativity into existence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2025

When I was eight, I found it weird how she was credited as a “beloved” mother when the only mothering she did was carry me for nine months; ten years later, I know much better.

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

Related Words

• mom
• parent