parent company

American

noun

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

parent company British

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

parent companies

plural

Etymology

Origin of parent company

First recorded in 1865–70

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:

parent company

The BBC has asked the White House and TKO Holdings, the parent company of UFC, for comment.

From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2026

The problem seems to be fears of middling bang for the buck and also how much the parent company must shell out to help franchisees.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Amazon, Google’s parent company Alphabet, ServiceNow and Meta all saw their share prices drop after reporting quarterly earnings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

Many tech stock were weak after Google’s parent company reported disappointing third-quarter numbers.

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 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

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023