orphan

CEFRB1

/ˈɔːfən/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A child whose parents have died.

  2. 02

    verb

    To leave a child without parents.

Examples

  • The orphan was fostered by the wealthy man.

  • The orphan wept with grief over his misfortune.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
2

Also pronounced

  • /ˈɔːɹfənt/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A young animal with no mother.

  2. A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.

  3. A person, especially a minor, whose parents have permanently abandoned them.

More examples

In context

  • What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?

  • With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.

  • She is an orphan child.

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The little blank whose parents died was taken to a children's home.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

Late Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. PIE word *h₃órbʰos Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.