Pregnant

How to spell pregnant

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pregnant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pregnant mean?

1. adjectiveCarrying a developing baby or young in the womb.
2. adjectiveFull of significance, tension, or unspoken meaning.

Pregnant in a sentence

• She was seven months pregnant when she started maternity leave.

• A pregnant silence fell over the boardroom after the announcement.

• The clinic offers free vitamins to pregnant women.

• His final remark was pregnant with warning.

Where does pregnant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin praegnans, meaning 'with child' or 'before birth', built from prae 'before' and a root tied to gnasci, 'to be born', the same source that gives us 'native', 'nation', and 'genus'. The literal idea was of a body carrying something not yet brought into the world. Latin praegnans passed into late Middle English in the 1400s, keeping its core sense of carrying a child. From there it broadened figuratively to mean 'full of meaning' or 'rich with possibility', as in a pregnant pause. The silent g and the unstressed -ant ending are the spelling points to watch, both inherited intact from the Latin form.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• gn- (from gignere/gnasci: to be born, to bring forth)
• -ant (adjective suffix)