Other forms: orphans
An orphan is a child whose parents have both died. An orphan child, orphans of the war, left an orphan.
Aid agencies count children with one surviving parent as orphans too, which is why the numbers look so large — most so-called orphans have a living parent. In typesetting, an orphan is a single line left at the bottom of a page. Note that the Greek means without parents.
1nounorphanA child whose parents have died.
“She became an orphan at six and was raised by her aunt.”
orphan is a child.
Greek orphanos means without parents, from a Proto-Indo-European root. Latin orbus is a relative.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃erbʰ-
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃órbʰos
Ancient Greek
ὀρφανός — without parents, fatherless
Latin
orphanus
English, today
orphan
Late Middle English -, from Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (“without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European h₃órbʰos. Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ, Latin orbus (“orphaned”), xcl որբ (“orphan”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA