surrogate mother

noun

1. a person who acts in the place of another person's biological mother.

2. an animal that is given another's offspring to raise.

3. Medicine/Medical.,  a woman who helps a couple to have a child by carrying to term an embryo conceived by the couple and transferred to her uterus, or by being inseminated with the man's sperm and either donating the embryo for transfer to the woman's uterus or carrying it to term.

surrogate mother

/ ˈsʌrəɡəsɪ /

noun

1. a woman who bears a child on behalf of a couple unable to have a child, either by artificial insemination from the man or implantation of an embryo from the woman

Other Word Forms

• surrogacy noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of surrogate mother¹

First recorded in 1975–80