parentage
part of speech
noun (parentage — usually uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) Your parentage is who your parents are. tree →
2) It can also mean the family or country your parents come from, your origin. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and stories it is a slightly formal word for where someone comes from; old stories may make a mystery of a hero's parentage. In science, a plant or animal's parentage is which parents it was bred from. Phrases: of mixed parentage, of Irish parentage, unknown parentage.
examples
- The orphan in the story did not know his parentage. tree →
- She is of Irish and Jamaican parentage. tree →
- The puppy's parentage was written on its papers. tree →
- The prince's true parentage was a secret. tree →
- Scientists checked the parentage of the new apple tree. tree →
- Nobody should be judged by their parentage. tree →
- But some of those who remembered Brah’s parentage thought that as Bran herself had come from the Shi so this fawn might have come out of the Shi also. tree →
note
Usually uncountable: no «a», no plural. Formal; in everyday talk people say «who your parents are» or «family background». Do not confuse with «parenting», which means looking after and raising children.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «parentage» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.