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).

---

parent company British  

noun

1. a company that owns more than half the shares of another company

---

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

But the method is now gaining popularity, with Alphabet, Google's parent company, seeking approval to release up to 64 million Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in California and Florida.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

Truth Social’s parent company is selling stock market traders superfast access to Trump’s posts on the platform, for up to $100,000 a month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The Las Vegas company bought it this month after its former parent company, Fat Brands, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 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