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

Google’s parent company will replace Verizon in the Dow before the market opens on June 29.

From Barron's • Jun. 24, 2026

Joost van Dreunen, a professor of games business at NYU Stern said the pricing was a "clever strategy" by Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two.

From BBC • Jun. 24, 2026

Meta Platforms, Apple, and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, also saw their stock prices slide, though the decline wasn’t as large as the drop in chip stocks.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 23, 2026

But it has also faced some recent scrutiny in the country over its privacy and data sharing practices with its parent company, Meta.

From BBC • Jun. 22, 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