Parental

How to spell parental

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce parental

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does parental mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to a parent or to the role and responsibilities of being a parent.

Parental in a sentence

• The film carries a parental guidance warning for younger viewers.

• New staff are entitled to a year of parental leave.

Where does parental come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adjective traces back to the Latin parens, meaning 'a parent' or literally 'one who brings forth', which itself came from the verb parere, 'to give birth to' or 'to produce'. The Latin scholars formed the related adjective parentalis to describe things belonging to or honouring parents; in Roman culture the Parentalia were the festival days set aside for honouring dead family members. English took the noun 'parent' from Old French during the 1400s, and the adjective 'parental' followed somewhat later, recorded from the early 1600s, built on the same Latin stem with the familiar '-al' ending. The very same parere root sits inside words like 'postpartum' and 'apparent', and it is a cousin of 'parturition', the medical term for childbirth. Because the word simply attaches '-al' to the everyday 'parent', the spelling holds no real surprises beyond remembering it ends '-tal' rather than '-tle'.

How the word is built

• parent- (from Latin parens: a parent, one who brings forth)
• -al (adjective suffix: relating to)