noun
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an institution for orphans and abandoned children
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the state of being an orphan
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of orphanage
Explanation
An orphanage is a place where children without parents are cared for and housed. If a child has no parents — because the parents died or lost custody — the child is considered an orphan. Orphans are parentless. An orphanage is an institution that takes care of orphans. An orphanage will care for tiny babies and also older children without parents. Orphanages care for children until they can be placed in homes and adopted.
Vocabulary lists containing orphanage
The Shakespeare Stealer
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One for the Murphys
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Tasting the Sky
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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:
The children were initially looked after by Nelly and Ernst, but were placed in an orphanage when it became clear that their aunt and uncle couldn’t afford their care.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
A carer working at the orphanage was amongst those who died, according to the AFP news agency quoting a police report.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Instead of being cared for in the orphanage, the two children were adopted together in Denmark, like tens of thousands of others sent overseas in a state-sanctioned practice that lasted decades.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
Kenneth, who was put in an orphanage, has remained an orphan ever since.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
The shoes are too big—passed on from an older boy who died at the orphanage last month—but Reverend Hunt says I can’t go barefoot in the New World.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Not much later, I would consider the role of language in disguising accountability during an investigation into mistreatment of children in Russian orphanages.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen, born in the early 1980s, were adopted from two different orphanages in the western Indian city of Mumbai within months of their birth.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Enquiries have proven otherwise, indicating that South Korean children in orphanages were given away for adoption without their families' consent.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
It has also been found in wild elephant herds and in some sanctuaries and elephant orphanages.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025
She knocks on doors of churches, orphanages, hospitals.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
