mother
mother
Pronunciation
mother
/ˈmʌðər/
moth-: /mʌð/
/m/: Voiced bilabial nasal consonant
/ʌ/: Open-mid back unrounded vowel (as in "cup")
/ð/: Voiced dental fricative (as in "this")
-er: /ər/
/ə/: Schwa (mid-central vowel, as in "sofa")
/r/: Voiced alveolar approximant consonant
Word Form Variations
Singular Noun: mother
Plural Noun: mothers
Possessive Singular Noun: mother's
Possessive Plural Noun: mothers'
Verb (present tense, 3rd person singular): mothers
Verb (present participle): mothering
Verb (past tense/past participle): mothered
Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms
Noun
A female parent; a woman who has given birth to a child, or a female who has raised a child, often with great care and affection.
Synonyms: mom, mamma, mater (formal), matriarch, birthmother, adoptive mother, stepmother.
Antonyms: father, child, offspring.
Example: My mother taught me how to read and write.
The origin or source of something, particularly that which provides nurture, sustenance, or foundational support.
Synonyms: source, origin, fount, wellspring, genesis, root.
Antonyms: offspring, product, derivative, consequence.
Example: Necessity is the mother of invention.
Verb
To care for, protect, and nurture someone or something in a way characteristic of a mother, providing emotional and physical support.
Synonyms: nurture, parent, raise, cherish, foster, protect, tend.
Antonyms: neglect, abandon, disregard, harm.
Example: She carefully mothered the orphaned kitten back to health.
To give birth to (especially in a biological context, less common than the noun form).
Synonyms: bear, deliver, produce.
Antonyms: (No direct antonyms for the act of giving birth, as it's a specific biological event.)
Example: The mare mothered a healthy foal last night.
Adjective
Relating to or characteristic of a mother; maternal.
Synonyms: maternal, parental, nurturing, caring, protective.
Antonyms: paternal, unmotherly, neglectful.
Example: Her mother instincts kicked in when she saw the child fall.
Examples of Use
Books:
"All my life, I've been my mother's daughter. It's a given. It's a fact. It's an inescapable truth." (Laura Trentham, When the Stars Come Out)
"My mother always said that true beauty comes from within." (Quote attributed to various sources, often found in self-help and inspirational books)
Newspapers:
"The local community organized a fundraising drive to support a mother and her children who lost their home in a recent fire." (Local news report)
"Experts emphasize the vital role a mother plays in a child's early development." (Health section article, The New York Times)
Online Publications:
"How to balance work and family life as a working mother." (Article on Forbes.com)
"Scientists discover a new species of deep-sea organism, calling it the 'mother of all crustaceans'." (National Geographic online)
Various Entertainment Mediums and Platforms:
Film: "A mother's love knows no bounds," a common theme in countless movies, such as Room (2015) or Brave (2012).
Television Series: "How I Met Your Mother" (Title of a popular sitcom, premiered September 2005).
Music: "Mama," a song by the Spice Girls, where they sing about their mother's influence. (Released March 1997)
Video Games: In many role-playing games, characters often embark on quests to find or protect their mother figures. (e.g., Final Fantasy VII where Cloud seeks answers about his past and his mother, January 1997)
Social Media: #MomLife and #BestMomEver are popular hashtags used by individuals to share experiences and express appreciation for their mothers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok (Ongoing).
General Public Discourse:
"Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there!" (Common greeting on the second Sunday of May each year)
"You should always listen to your mother; she knows best." (Common advice given by elders)
"The city is the motherland for many of us who grew up here." (Statement in a community meeting, June 2024)
"He's such a mother hen, always worrying about everyone." (Figurative language used to describe an overly protective person)
10 Quotes Using Mother
"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." (Abraham Lincoln)
"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers." (Rudyard Kipling)
"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom." (Henry Ward Beecher)
"A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's." (Princess Diana)
"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." (Tenneva Jordan)
"Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all." (Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.)
"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it." (Mark Twain)
"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." (Theodore Hesburgh)
"Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face." (George Eliot)
"There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one." (Jill Churchill)
Etymology
The word "mother" has a very old and fascinating history, tracing its roots back thousands of years!
Imagine a very ancient language that was spoken by people across a huge area, from parts of Europe all the way to India. Linguists call this the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language. It's not a language we have written records of, but experts have "reconstructed" it by finding common patterns in many modern languages.
The word for "mother" in this ancient PIE language was something like méh₂tēr. It's believed that this word might have come from the simple "mama" sound that babies often make, combined with a suffix (a small ending part of a word) that was used for kinship terms.
Over time, as different groups of people migrated and their languages changed, this ancient word evolved. It transformed into words like:
mōdor in Old English (the earliest form of English)
mōdēr in Proto-Germanic (the ancestor of English, German, Dutch, and other Germanic languages)
māter in Latin (which gave us words like "maternal" and "matrix")
mētēr in Greek
So, the English word "mother" comes directly from the Old English "mōdor," which itself came from that even older Proto-Germanic word, and ultimately from the very ancient Proto-Indo-European term.
The first known use of "mother" in English, with its meaning of "a female parent," dates back to before the 900s, in its Old English form "mōdor." It has consistently held this core meaning of the female parent or source of something throughout its long history.
Phrases + Idioms Containing Mother
Mother Nature: Refers to the personification of nature, especially in its life-giving and nurturing aspects.
Mother Earth: Similar to Mother Nature, often used to refer to the planet as a nurturing entity.
Mother lode: The principal or richest vein of ore in a mine, or, figuratively, a rich or abundant source of something.
A mother hen: A person who is overly protective or fussy about others.
Like a mother bear: Extremely protective and fierce when defending one's children.
Mother tongue: One's native language.
The mother of all [something]: An exaggerated way to describe something as being the largest, most extreme, or most significant example of its kind. (e.g., "the mother of all storms")
Mother wit: Common sense or natural intelligence.
To mother someone: To care for or fuss over someone in a maternal way.
Every mother's son: Every single person.
Necessity is the mother of invention: A common proverb meaning that difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions.
Mother country: The country of one's origin or ancestors, especially in relation to a colony or former colony.
Vocabulary-Based Stories from SEA
Source Information
Definition of mother from The Academic Glossary at Self Exploration Academy, a Urikville Press Publication. © All rights reserved.
