# donor

Pronunciation: US say "DOH-nur" /ˈdoʊnɚ/; UK say "DOH-nuh" /ˈdəʊnə/

## Noun

1. A person who gives money, goods, or other support to a cause, an organization, or a person in need.
   - Simple: A person who gives money, goods, or time to help others or a cause.
   - _The charity thanked every donor by name at its annual dinner._
   - _A generous donor funded scholarships for first-generation students._
2. A machine or object, often broken beyond repair, kept so that its usable parts can replace the failed parts of another.
   - Simple: A broken machine or object kept so that its working pieces can be used to fix another.
   - _Restorers bought a rusted-out sedan to serve as a donor for its rare trim pieces._
   - _The workshop's shelf of donors finally yielded the exact valve they needed._
3. A molecule or group that supplies a radical, electrons, or a moiety to another species in a chemical reaction, as distinguished from the acceptor.
   - Simple: A molecule or group that gives away electrons or part of itself during a chemical reaction.
   - _The amine acts as the electron donor in the coupling step._
   - _Hydrogen donors stabilize the radical before it can react further._

## Origin

The word comes from Middle English donoure or donour, taken from Anglo-Norman donour, which itself came from Old French doneur.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/donor (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).