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

The brothers, now 41, were 7 when Armstrong’s mother and Beane’s father got married.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

In later life, Archer insisted that his father William, who was some 40 years older than his mother, was a decorated hero of the First World War.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

In 2006, Shelby told the American Enterprise Institute that having a white mother and black father has been a “profound advantage” because it demystified race.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Archer's mother Lola was the first woman journalist on the weekly paper, the Weston Mercury.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

She wished she hadn’t had to trade getting to be with her mother for losing proximity to her best friend.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Among them are white male entitlement versus the crushing demands of Black exceptionalism; the complicated bond linking fathers to sons; and the agonizing bravery required of mothers raising boys the world is conditioned to ostracize.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

But with Noah and John, you also see just how big of a role their mothers have played in shaping them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

“Their mothers were trying to calm them but it was impossible.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Depending on the salary, full-time mothers and homemakers — yes, it’s a full-time job too — give up anything between $450,000 and $1 million over their lifetime.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

As our mothers chatter on, Elizabeth and I exchange glances.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

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

Missing being mothered has driven her to cultivate her Spanish skills, after a college counselor hints that “focusing on a new syntax of any kind could become an escape hatch into new habits of mind.”

From Washington Post ● Mar. 13, 2023

"He was proper snuggled, not just by me but by Izzy and Livi - he was very mothered."

From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2022

The desert has mothered magic things before this.

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

While mothering her two teenagers, one of them newly identifies as nonbinary — “It was Laurel’s job to not make a big deal about this” — she obsesses about her husband’s questionable fidelity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Would my mothering improve before the baby was born?

From Slate ● May 10, 2026

Reflecting on her character's journey in the film, Adams explained: "Through her parenting - through her mothering - she got in touch with something bigger and something primal."

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2024

Not that I wanted or needed any mothering.

From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia

Related Words

• mom
• parent