Pregnant Definition & Meaning

American

British

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms pregnant 1 American [preg-nuhnt] / ˈprɛg nənt /

adjective

1. having a child or other offspring developing in the body; with child or young, as a woman or female mammal.

2. fraught, filled, or abounding (usually followed bywith ).

   a silence pregnant with suspense.

3. teeming or fertile; rich (often followed byin ).

   a mind pregnant in ideas.

4. full of meaning; highly significant.

   a pregnant utterance.

5. of great importance or potential; momentous.

   a pregnant moment in the history of the world.

pregnant 2 American [preg-nuhnt] / ˈprɛg nənt /

adjective

Archaic.

1. convincing; cogent.

   a pregnant argument.

pregnant British / ˈprɛɡnənt /

adjective

1. carrying a fetus or fetuses within the womb

2. full of meaning or significance

3. inventive or imaginative

4. prolific or fruitful

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

• pregnantly adverb
• pregnantness noun

Etymology

Origin of pregnant1

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin praegnant- (stem of praegnāns ), variant of praegnās, equivalent to prae- pre- + *gnāt- (akin to ( g ) nātus born, gignere to bring into being) + -s nominative singular ending

Origin of pregnant2

1350–1400; Middle English preignant < Old French, present participle of preindre, earlier priembre to press 1 < Latin premere. print

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She told the man she "loved being pregnant" and that it "all felt so natural".

From BBC

A former sub-postmistress who was wrongly jailed while pregnant during the Post Office's Horizon IT scandal is still awaiting full compensation more than 15 years after her ordeal.

From BBC

Not by coincidence, Evy discovers that she is herself pregnant, though she hasn’t told her boyfriend, with whom she was living before moving into her mother’s house for the latter’s final days.

From The Wall Street Journal

He revealed his wife was pregnant after leaving the I'm A Celebrity jungle last December, calling the news "a healthy distraction" and "partly healing".

From BBC

A Mail on Sunday editor claims she knew Princess Catherine was pregnant with her first child days before the Palace announcement but kept the information to herself, the High Court has heard.

From BBC

Related Words

• rich

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.