prenatal
Americanadjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of prenatal
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Explanation
Use the adjective prenatal to describe something that happens prior to a baby's birth, like a special prenatal yoga class for pregnant women. The word prenatal has been around since the 1830s, mostly as a medical term to describe the state of a pregnant woman or her fetus. The word is made up of pre, "before" in Modern Latin, and natal, which comes from natus, Latin for "to be born." There are prenatal vitamins, prenatal exercise classes, and prenatal checkups — all for women who are expecting babies. Interestingly, an anagram for prenatal is parental.
Vocabulary lists containing prenatal
This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for October 22–October 28, 2022
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: pre-
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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.
“If dads had higher prenatal cortisol and partners were more weakly linked, toddlers did worse on the executive functioning task, perhaps because the dads were less attuned to their partners and less primed to parent.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 19, 2026
“Our findings do not provide strong evidence that prenatal antidepressant exposure causes neurodevelopmental disorders.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 27, 2026
The parents of a five-year-old girl born with holes in her heart have stressed the importance of prenatal diagnoses after multiple scans failed to pick up her condition.
From BBC • May 23, 2026
“Delayed prenatal care has serious consequences for both mothers and babies,” Dr. Kim Bruno, associate director at Sera Prognostics, told Salon.
From Salon • Mar. 1, 2026
In human populations exposed to urethane or related chemicals there is a possibility that tumors will develop in infants through prenatal exposure, as Dr. Hueper has warned.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
