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engender

UK/ɪnˈdʒɛn.də/US/ɛnˈd͡ʒɛn.dɚ/
verbC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,459 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: engendered, engendering, engenders

To engender is to give rise to a feeling or a situation. Engender trust, engender resentment, engender debate.

It takes abstract objects almost exclusively, so trust and hostility are engendered and buildings are not. The Latin behind it means to beget, which is why the word implies bringing something into being rather than merely causing it.

Definitions of engender

  1. 1verbengenderTo give rise to a feeling or a situation.C2

    “The unfair decision engendered a great deal of anger among the staff.”

engender is a causing.

Where it comes from

Latin ingenerare means to beget, from in plus generare, to produce.

  1. Latin

    ingenero

  2. Old French

    engendrer

  3. Middle English

    engendren

  4. English, today

    engender

From Middle English engendren, from Old French engendrer, from Latin ingenero.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

engender in the wild

  • In business ethics, Ethical decision-making is the study of the process of making decisions that engender trust, and thus indicate responsibility, fairness and caring to an individual.

    Ethical decision-making

  • The magazine seeks artists (regardless of genre) who endeavor to enlighten or engender political or social change.

    Ugly Planet

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.