What does "stepmother" mean?

The wife of one's biological father, other than one's biological mother.

What is a synonym for "stepmother"?

Common synonyms include: bonus mother, bonus mother, co mother, co-mother, dam, foster mother.

Stepmother

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
The wife of one's biological father, other than one's biological mother.
2
the wife of your father by a subsequent marriage wordnet
3
A viola, especially Viola tricolor, heartsease. rare
"The second came up about ten days later in the lee of the channel marker, and it was called stepmother, or love-in-idelness."

Synonyms

All synonyms

bonus mother bonus mother co mother co-mother dam foster mother

Example

More examples

"The stepmother sneered at Cinderella."

Etymology

From Middle English stepmoder, from Old English stēopmōdor, from Proto-Germanic *steupamōdēr (“stepmother”), corresponding to step- + mother. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Stäifmuur (“stepmother”), Dutch stiefmoeder (“stepmother”), German Low German Steevmoder (“stepmother”), German Stiefmutter (“stepmother”), Danish stedmor (“stepmother”), Swedish styvmor (“stepmother”), Icelandic stjúpmóðir (“stepmother”). Compare also West Frisian styfmem (“stepmother”).

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