parent company

American  

noun

• parent companies
  plural

1. a corporation or other business enterprise that owns controlling interests in one or more subsidiary companies (distinguished from holding company).

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parent company British  

noun

1. a company that owns more than half the shares of another company

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• parent companies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of parent company

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

parent company

The U.S. parent company for Fireball and Canadian Mist, privately held Sazerac, declined to comment.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026

Alabama originally sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance in April 2025, alleging the app was engineered to hook young users "just like a sophisticated gambling machine."

From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram also announced a new lineup of smart glasses including a $349 pair without cameras.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026

Salesforce, as Slack’s parent company, is an early adopter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

My team and I persuaded Darden Restaurants, the parent company behind chains like Olive Garden and Red Lobster, to make changes to the kinds of food it offered and how it was prepared.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama