parent

Universal Words noun 1 [usuallypl.] a person's father or mother: He's still living with his parents. * her adoptive parents * Sue and Ben have recently become parents. * It can be difficult to be a good parent. seealsoONE-PARENTFAMILY, SINGLEPARENT, STEP-PARENT 2 an animal or a plant which produces other animals or plants: the parent bird / tree 3 (often used as an adjective) an organization that produces and owns or controls smaller organizations of the same type: a parent bank and its subsidiaries * the parent company