Stepparent

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One's parent's spouse who is not one's biological parent.

    "The age at which a stepparent entered a child’s life, and whether they lived together and for how long, influences the quality of the relationship, studies show. […] As parents age, “there’s a lot of negotiation and uncertainties,” Dr. Silverstein said. “Who has the right to make decisions for stepparents becomes murky.”"

  2. 2
    the spouse of your parent by a subsequent marriage wordnet

Example

More examples

"The age at which a stepparent entered a child’s life, and whether they lived together and for how long, influences the quality of the relationship, studies show. […] As parents age, “there’s a lot of negotiation and uncertainties,” Dr. Silverstein said. “Who has the right to make decisions for stepparents becomes murky.”"

Etymology

From step- + parent.

Related phrases

ex-stepparentbiological parent

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