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

Tim Wyatt, president of Commonwealth's parent company, Caturus, says that amidst global instability the US is experiencing an LNG boom for a reason.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

“Our capital position and liquidity remain strong, and our financial strength ratings are unchanged,” Group 1001, the insurers’ parent company, said in a statement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade are all companies Khan has singled out for anticompetitive behavior, either as a professor or as the FTC Chair.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The EU official said the global turnover of Alibaba, AliExpress' parent company, was 122 billion euros last year, but the fine was well below six percent of that.

From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 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