Novercal

//nəʊˈvɜː(ɹ)kəl// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to a stepmother. dated, not-comparable

    "when almost the whole tribe of birds do thus, by incubation, produce their young , it is a wonderful deviation , that some few families only ſhould do it in a more novercal way"

Example

More examples

"when almost the whole tribe of birds do thus, by incubation, produce their young , it is a wonderful deviation , that some few families only ſhould do it in a more novercal way"

Etymology

From Latin novercalis, from noverca (“a stepmother”).

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