mother
/ˈmʌðɚ/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.24 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, fostered, etc).
noun
A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
noun
Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind. (See mother of all.)
Example Sentences
- "I am visiting my mother any moment."
- "The lioness was a mother of four cubs."
- "My sister-in-law has just become a mother for the first time."
- "He had something of his mother in him."
- "He had something of his mother in him, but this was because he realized that in the end only her love was unconditional, and in gratitude he had emulated her."
- "The "Ritual to Celebrate Birthing" begins with a leader welcoming all participants : "Welcome to this celebration for N. She is approaching the time when she will become a mother for the first time (or become a mother again)."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr Proto-Germanic *mōdēr Proto-West Germanic *mōder Old English mōdor Middle English moder English mother From Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-West Germanic *mōder, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Doublet of Madeira, mata, mater, matrix, and matter. Some have proposed that the "dregs" sense is from Middle Dutch modder (“filth”), from Proto-Germanic *muþraz (“sediment”), but modder is not known in this meaning. On the other hand, words for "mother" have developed the secondary sense of "dregs" in several Romance and Germanic languages; compare Dutch moer, French mère de vinaigre, German Essigmutter, Italian madre, Medieval Latin māter, and Spanish madre.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmʌðɚ/
- British English: /ˈmʌð.ə/