parental

UK/pəˈɹɛn.təl/US/pəˈɹɛn.təl/

adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,906 of 15,258leans written

Parental means to do with a mother or a father. The role, rather than the person.

It attaches to rights, leave, consent and control, and each of those is a formal category, so parental consent is legally required for a great many things involving children. Parental leave is the shared version of maternity and paternity leave. Parental controls are the settings that limit what a child can see on a device. The word covers both parents at once, which is exactly why officialdom prefers it.

Definitions of parental

1adjectiveparentalRelating to a parent or parents.C1
“The trip requires parental consent.”

Where it comes from

Latin
parentālis
Middle French
parental
English, today
parental

Built from

parens · Latin — parent

From Middle French parental, from Latin parentālis, from parens (“parent”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 10 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

parental in the wild

In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent or non-blood relations.
Parenting
Paid parental or family leave provides paid time off work to care for or make arrangements for the welfare of a child or dependent family member.
Parental leave
Private employers sometimes provide either or both unpaid and paid parental leave outside of or in addition to any legal mandate.
Parental leave
Content filters were the first popular type of parental controls to limit access to Internet content.
Parental controls
Decisions about child custody typically arise in proceedings involving divorce, annulment, separation, adoption or parental death.
Child custody

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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.

Related words

parental leave