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pregnant
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: prégnant
English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English preignant, from Old French preignant, pregnant, also prenant (compare archaic Modern French prégnant), and their source, Latin praegnāns (“pregnant”), probably from prae- (“pre-”) + *gnāscī, an archaic form of nāscī (“to be born”). Displaced Old English bearnēacen (literally "child-enlarged").
Adjective
pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)
- (chiefly not comparable) Carrying developing offspring within the body.
- I went to the doctor and, guess what, I’m five weeks pregnant!
- I became pregnant in July 2014.
- 2017 July 13, Bonnie Rochman, “Mothers-To-Be Aren’t Told Enough About Genetic Testing”, in Time:
- Once upon a time, not so long ago, women got pregnant and spent nine months in suspense before finding out if they were having a boy or a girl. But today? That waiting game is completely outdated, even quaint.
- 2025 February 19, Christian Wolmar, “Mind your language...”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 34:
- It suggests that pregnant women should be called pregnant people, presumably on the basis that just perhaps there may be a pregnant man somewhere.
- (sometimes proscribed) Of a couple: expecting a baby together.
- We are pregnant.
- (comparable) Meaningful, having numerous possibilities or implications; full of promise; abounding in ability, resources, etc.
- a pregnant pause
- c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
- wherein the pregnant enemy does much
- 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 April 2019:
- The many tear-jerkers deal with finality, with death and the end of love, with a stoicism pregnant with feeling.
- (poetic) Fecund, fertile, prolific (usually of soil, ground, etc.).
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- The sunne-beames bright vpon her body playd, / Being through former bathing mollifide, / And pierst into her wombe, where they embayd / With so sweet sence and secret power vnspide, / That in her pregnant flesh they shortly fructifide.
- (obsolete) Affording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
- play at subtill games; faire vertues all;
To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant
- (obsolete) Ready-witted; clever; ingenious.
Synonyms
- (carrying offspring (standard)): expecting, expecting a baby, expectant, gravid (of animals only), with child, fertilized, gone (for a particular number of months)
- (carrying offspring (colloquial/slang)): eating for two, having a bun in the oven, in the family way, knocked up, preggers, up the duff, up the spout
- (carrying offspring (euphemistic)): in an interesting condition, in the family way
- (having many possibilities or implications): meaningful, significant
- See also Thesaurus:pregnant
Hyponyms
- (carrying developing offspring): in trouble
Derived terms
- affirmative pregnant
- barefoot and pregnant
- big pregnant
- fall pregnant
- impregnant
- I'm pregnant
- midpregnant
- negative pregnant
- nonpregnant
- pregnant and barefoot
- pregnant chad
- pregnant construction
- pregnant denial
- pregnantly
- pregnantness
- pregnant pause
- pregnant woman
- pregnercise
- prepregnant
- pseudopregnant
- unpregnant
- you can't be half pregnant
Related terms
Translations
carrying developing offspring within the body
|
having many possibilities or implications
|
fertile — see fertile
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Noun
pregnant (plural pregnants)
- A pregnant person.
- 1843, William Robert Wilde, Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions:
- The Entbundenen, or those already delivered, are separate from those pregnants awaiting their accouchement
Translations
pregnant person — see pregnant woman
Etymology 2
Apparently from Middle French pregnant, preignant (“pressing, compelling”), present participle of prembre (“to press”), from Latin premere (“to press”).
Adjective
pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)
- (now rare) Compelling; clear, evident. [from 14th c.]
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
- Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.
References
- “Mila Kunis Tells Fathers-to-Be to Stop Saying 'We're Pregnant'”, in ABC News, 11 June 2014, archived from the original on 12 June 2014.
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Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French pregnant, from Old French pregnant, from Latin praegnāns.
Pronunciation
Adjective
pregnant (comparative pregnanter, superlative pregnantst)
Declension
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Romanian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
pregnant m or n (feminine singular pregnantă, masculine plural pregnanți, feminine and neuter plural pregnante)
Declension
References
- “pregnant”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025
Swedish
Pronunciation
Adjective
pregnant (comparative pregnantare, superlative pregnantast)
- pregnant (clear and pithy, of an expression, language, or the like)
- striking (distinctive, pronounced)
Usage notes
Pregnant as in carrying a baby is gravid (of a human) or dräktig (of an animal).
Declension
1 The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
2 Dated or archaic.
3 Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.
References
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