sire

American  

[sahy^uhr] / saɪər /

noun

• sires
  plural

1. the male parent of a quadruped.

2. a respectful term of address, now used only to a male sovereign.

3. Archaic.

   1. a father or forefather.

   2. a person of importance or in a position of authority, as a lord.

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verb (used with object)

• sires,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sired,
  past participle,  past
• siring
  present participle

1. to beget; procreate as the father.

sire British  

/ saɪə /

noun

1. a male parent, esp of a horse or other domestic animal

2. a respectful term of address, now used only in addressing a male monarch

3. obsolete a man of high rank

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verb

1. (tr) (esp of a domestic animal) to father; beget

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sireless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sires
  plural

Participles

• siring
  present
• sired
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sire
  simple
• sires
  simple
• have sired
  perfect
• has sired
  perfect
• am siring
  progressive
• are siring
  progressive
• is siring
  progressive
• have been siring
  perfect progressive
• has been siring
  perfect progressive

Past

• sired
  simple
• had sired
  perfect
• was siring
  progressive
• were siring
  progressive
• had been siring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sire
  simple
• will have sired
  perfect
• will be siring
  progressive
• will have been siring
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of sire

1175–1225; Middle English < Old French (nominative singular) < Vulgar Latin *seior, for Latin senior senior (compare French monsieur originally, my lord, with sieur < *seiōr-, oblique stem of *seior )

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Explanation

A sire is an animal's father. A newborn foal might look very much like his sire, with a white stripe on his brown face. Every once in a while, the word sire is used for a human — your dad is your sire — but it's much more common to find this word describing an animal's male parent. It's also a verb, meaning "to father," as in "My prize pig sires the cutest piglets." In the old days, you'd also use sire to directly address a nobleman or a king. It comes from the Latin word senior, "elder."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sire sires sired siring

Three years on, the Purosangue remains an astonishing presence on any street, a provocation, an outrage, a moral panic—indeed, sire, very like a Ferrari.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026

The average breeding-purebred male dog, called a sire, will father more than 100 puppies.

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2023

The owner, trainer and jockey were the same as Slow Down Andy’s sire, Nyquist, who won the 2016 Kentucky Derby.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2023

A corner stall in the stallion barn still bears Secretariat’s name and that of his sire, Bold Ruler, among those of other elites who have inhabited the space.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2023

“He’s the donkey patriarch, the people’s hero, a creature who casts a greater shadow than the divine Tianma horse, a sire to Pegasus, and a ruby-sweating god-beast!”

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

The mare was sired by Northern Dancer, the first Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby in 1964 who went on to become one of the sport’s greatest sires.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2023

You need look no further than their sires to see the thinking.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2021

Rickard said this compared to recently frozen semen from 19 sires used to inseminate 1,048 ewes, of which 618 were successfully impregnated.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2019

At the Plant and Animal Genome meeting in San Diego, California, in January, Oatley presented the results of his efforts to transplant sperm-producing stem cells into his surrogate pig sires.

From Nature ● Mar. 13, 2019

Taking up his Levy Pants ballpoint pen, he began writing on the first sheet of new Blue Horse paper: Dear Reader, Books are immortal sons defying their sires.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Commodus, now a teenager, had shown he had none of his father’s nature; he so preferred athletics to statecraft that some believed he’d been sired by a gladiator.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026

Otto sired six calves, including Dara - its most recent offspring - who was born in January 2023.

From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2025

Mouse pups sired by dysbiotic fathers showed significantly lower birth weights and an increased rate of postnatal mortality.

From Science Daily ● May 1, 2024

Both babies were sired by Kiburi, a 19-year-old silverback brought to the zoo from Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands as part of a conservation breeding program to help preserve the critically endangered gorilla subspecies.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 25, 2024

Ma said, “He was sired by Grand Sha-vois!”

From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Paramount Global has created numerous spin-offs of its main cable channels, with Nickelodeon siring five programming offspring, Nick Jr., Nick at Nite, TeenNick, Nicktoons and Nick Music.

From Reuters ● Sep. 14, 2023

A Dutch court banned a man Friday from donating any more of his sperm after his donations led to the siring of 550 to 600 children.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 28, 2023

Gun Runner, another horse of the year who is proving himself as a stallion, siring this year’s entrants Taiba and Cyberknife, finished third in 2016.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2022

"Females benefit by preventing these unwanted males from siring any of her young. That means her chosen partner gets most of the paternity, and therefore she gains the benefit through her offspring," says Dr Brennan.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2021

But Louie, the instant her uncle stopped, broke into a siring of questions, shrill and breathless, her face quite white, her eyes glittering.

From The History of David Grieve by Mrs. Humphry Ward

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