engender
verb
Did you know?
A good paragraph about engender will engender understanding in the reader. Like its synonym generate, engender comes from the Latin verb generare, meaning “to generate” or “to beget,” and when the word was first used in the 14th century, engender meant “propagate” or “procreate.” That literal meaning having to do with creating offspring (which generate shared when it was adopted in the early 16th century) was soon joined by the “to cause to exist or develop; to produce” meaning most familiar to us today. Generare didn’t just engender generate and engender; regenerate, degenerate, and generation have the same Latin root. As you might suspect, the list of engender relatives does not end there. Generare comes from the Latin noun genus, meaning “origin” or “kind.” From this source we took our own word genus, plus gender, general, and generic, among other words.
Synonyms
Examples of engender in a Sentence
Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 7 Jan. 2025
The total absence of shadow is an oppressive sensation, which engenders a feeling similar to that of claustrophobia.
—New Atlas, 6 Jan. 2025
Perhaps not for shrinking violets, Lak’s recognizable colors and wares engender a visible bond of sorts amongst wearers—one often affirmed without the need for words.
—Laura Neilson, Vogue, 27 Dec. 2024
Meanwhile, an increasingly consolidated health-care industry has engendered the kinds of too-big-to-fail behemoths that can single-handedly paralyze the system.
—Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near engender
Cite this Entry
“Engender.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/engender. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.
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engender
verb
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