upbringing
Americannoun
-
upbringings
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of upbringing
First recorded in 1475–85; gerund of upbring “to rear children” (obsolete since the 16th century)
Explanation
Your upbringing is how you were raised as a child. You might have had a rough upbringing or a gentler one, but at least you made it this far. Looking at the base “bring” in upbringing, we find a Germanic origin meaning "to carry." You might consider the "carry" idea as a way to remember the word, considering a parent "carries" a child to adulthood, providing what then becomes the child’s upbringing.
Vocabulary lists containing upbringing
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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.
See Examples For:
After a turbulent upbringing that included stints in prison, he turned to doing gang intervention work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
He frequently leans into his religious upbringing – as the grandson of a Southern Baptist preacher who spent time in a seminary – leavening his stump speeches with biblical references.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
His upbringing in Suffolk shaped his evocative descriptions of eastern England.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Lagarde, a lawyer by training and the daughter of teachers, had a modest upbringing spent mostly in the French port city of Le Havre.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
The practical, pragmatic part of our upbringing wouldn’t allow me to put much stock in the gentle, well-intentioned platitudes people would heap on us a few days later at the funeral.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Perhaps the difference in your upbringings plays a part.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Both had tough upbringings marked by an absent father, intermittently absent mother and reliable grandparents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
A former police captain, vice president-elect Edman Lara is known for his humble upbringings and whistleblowing on police corruption.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2025
His children, who had privileged upbringings and were educated overseas, will have no trouble fending for themselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2024
I'd always known that my mom and I had completely different upbringings.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
