Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

co-mother

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.92 in modern English

Syllables: co--moth-er
IPA

15

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

4

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The relationship of a godmother to the other god-parents, and the legal parents, of a child.

Obsolete

noun

In polygamy, a wife of one's father who is not one's mother; that is, co-wife of one's mother.

noun

In polygamy, the relationship between one co-wife and another, in respect to their children.

noun

In a lesbian couple, the nonbirth mother (partner of the birth mother) of a child, especially one who takes an equal role in mothering the child.

Example Sentences

"It is considered incestuous for a co-mother and co-father to have sex relations"
"the two of them went to their mother's forest hut and tried to find a way to avenge their mother's death and kill their co-mother."
"Notwithstanding the voluminous “co-wife” literature that Western anthropologists have used to define African marriage, “co-mother” is the preferred idiom in many African cultures for expressing the relationship amongst women married into the same family."
"The dilemmas engendered by the absence of a biological tie between a child and co-mother illuminate the centrality of familial rights and obligations in American kinship."

Etymology

* com- + mother, as calque of Latin commater, French commère.

Word Breakdown

Prefix: com

Usage

Obsolete

Inflected Forms

co-mothers (plural) commother (alternative)

Phrases

co-aunt co-grandmother co-maternity co-mother-in-law co-sister co-wife

Frequently Paired Words

co-aunt co-grandmother co-maternity co-mother-in-law co-sister co-wife co-father co-parent

Synonyms

cummer gossip commère sister-wife stepmother

Questions

What does co-mother mean?: The relationship of a godmother to the other god-parents, and the legal parents, of a child.
Where does co-mother come from?: * com- + mother, as calque of Latin commater, French commère.

How to pronounce co-mother

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