midwife

CEFRC1

/ˈmɪd.waɪf/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A trained person who helps women during pregnancy and childbirth.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Someone who assists in bringing about some result or project.

Examples

  • The tongue is the midwife of all disasters.

  • Modernly, a hospital midwife is usually a registered nurse.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈmɪd.(w)ɪf/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To act as a midwife.

  2. A person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth, but who is not a physician.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To facilitate the emergence of.

More examples

In context

  • Mary is a midwife.

  • A hundred years ago, a midwife would bring the baby into the world - going to a hospital to deliver a baby was either impossible or unheard of.

  • The senior midwife confirmed that […] occasionally a multigravid woman could feel little more than slight abdominal discomfort.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank provided support during labor and helped deliver the baby.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English midwif, corresponding to mid (“with”) + wif (“woman, wife, female”). It appears not to be entirely clear whether the original understanding was “with-woman” in the sense of “attending/assisting woman”, or “they who are with the woman” (namely the mother).