noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person who gives birth to someone, usually a mother. dated, rare
2. 2
   A person who is someone's biological mother but who is not felt by their child(ren) as their mother in an emotional sense, typically due to long-term abuse

Etymology

From birth + giver.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.