pregnant
1 Americanadjective
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having a child or other offspring developing in the body; with child or young, as a woman or female mammal.
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fraught, filled, or abounding (usually followed bywith ).
a silence pregnant with suspense.
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teeming or fertile; rich (often followed byin ).
a mind pregnant in ideas.
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full of meaning; highly significant.
a pregnant utterance.
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of great importance or potential; momentous.
a pregnant moment in the history of the world.
adjective
adjective
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carrying a fetus or fetuses within the womb
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full of meaning or significance
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inventive or imaginative
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prolific or fruitful
Other Word Forms
- pregnantly adverb
- pregnantness noun
Etymology
Origin of pregnant1
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin praegnant- (stem of praegnāns ), variant of praegnās, equivalent to prae- pre- + *gnāt- (akin to ( g ) nātus born, gignere to bring into being) + -s nominative singular ending
Origin of pregnant2
1350–1400; Middle English preignant < Old French, present participle of preindre, earlier priembre to press 1 < Latin premere. Cf. print
Explanation
If you are pregnant, you are carrying a developing baby in your body. If you are pregnant it is important to take excellent care of your health — it's good for tyou and good for the baby. Pregnant comes from Latin, and literally means "before giving birth" — prae-, like pre- means "before" and gnasci is a root that means "be born." Pregnant can also mean "filled with something," like inspiration or "rich in significance or implication," like your pregnant pause before answering your friend's question, "You like my new boyfriend, don't you?"
Vocabulary lists containing pregnant
"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 2
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Vocabulary from Readings 2, Unit 1
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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.
His wife was pregnant when they put their belongings in storage and moved to New York for “Sweeney Todd.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 22, 2026
The couple paid Albon £100 in cash and a £150 Amazon gift card before she got pregnant via artificial insemination.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
“DOGE canceled funds for several research projects, which could save countless Black mothers,” Davis said, pointing to research at the Morehouse School of Medicine to improve the health outcomes of pregnant and postpartum women.
From Salon • Apr. 21, 2026
In 2024, ProPublica reported on the case of 18-year-old Nevaeh Crain, who began experiencing severe pregnancy complications when she was six months pregnant in 2023.
From Salon • Apr. 20, 2026
He walked them uptown, left one at her apartment on Fourteenth Street and the other at the Plaza Hotel, and then walked home to his pregnant wife on Seventy-second Street.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Definitions 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.
