pregnant
Noun pluralpregnants
Pluralpregnants
- 1Carrying young that are developing inside the body; also used of a couple who are expecting a baby together.
She became pregnant in July and told her family at Christmas.
Pregnant women are advised to avoid certain soft cheeses.
UsageUse get pregnant or become pregnant for the start of pregnancy, and time expressions such as five weeks pregnant.
- 2Meaningful; full of possibilities, implications, or promise; abounding in resources.
Her short reply was pregnant with meaning that everyone in the room understood.
It was a pregnant moment: the whole negotiation turned on what she said next.
UsageOften pregnant with meaning or consequences; best known in a pregnant pause.
Similarmeaningful, significant, charged, loaded, fraught
Oppositemeaningless, empty, insignificant
- 3A person who is pregnant.
The Entbundenen, or those already delivered, are separate from those pregnants awaiting their accouchement
1843, William Robert Wilde, Austria: Its LiteraryNote
Here the adjective has been turned into a noun with an ordinary plural, pregnants. William Robert Wilde, in Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions (1843), separates the pregnants awaiting delivery from those already delivered. Set beside the everyday pregnant woman or pregnant person, the bare noun sounds impersonal, treating the condition as the whole of the person.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Pregnant has a noun use with the regular plural pregnants, and Wilde uses it for people awaiting delivery, distinguished from those already delivered. en.wiktionary.org
- William Robert Wilde wrote Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions. openlibrary.org
Less common meanings
- 4
- 5Compelling; clear, evident, now rare.
Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.
1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine PickleNote
A different word wearing the same spelling. It apparently comes from Middle French pregnant, "pressing, compelling", and ultimately from Latin premere, "to press". When Smollett's Peregrine Pickle (1751) offers "such pregnant examples", they are examples that press the point home. The sense is now rare, and modern readers will hear the "full of meaning" sense instead. Its root is probably pressure, not birth.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle was first published in 1751. commons.wikimedia.org
- The novel's narrator uses the exact phrase such pregnant examples for telling or compelling examples. gutenberg.org
- 6Ready to let something in or take it in; disposed to give way, comply, or act without delay.
play at subtill games; faire vertues all; To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant
c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”Note
This sense has dropped out of English entirely: it described someone open and ready to take something up. Shakespeare uses it in Troilus and Cressida, where the Greeks are "most prompt and pregnant" to subtle games, and the pairing with prompt shows its force: quick and willing. It takes to before its object. In older texts it is easily mistaken for the "full of meaning" sense; where readiness fits, read it this way.
- 7Ready-witted; clever; ingenious.
Note
Once a compliment to the mind, a pregnant wit was quick and inventive. It is close kin to the "prompt, receptive" sense, since both describe a mind that is ready, and like that sense it is now found only in older texts. A modern listener would hear the literal meaning first, so quick-witted or ingenious is the safe choice today.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Pregnant historically described a quick and inventive mind. en.wiktionary.org
- The intellectual sense shares the idea of readiness with the receptive sense. britishartstudies.ac.uk
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English preignant, borrowed through Old French from Latin praegnāns ('pregnant'), probably formed from prae- ('pre-') plus *gnāscī, an archaic form of nāscī ('to be born'). It displaced the Old English bearnēacen, literally 'child-enlarged'.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- English pregnant derives from Middle English preignant through Old French. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate source is Latin praegnāns, meaning pregnant. cld.bbaw.de
- The proposed formation combines prae- with archaic *gnāscī, corresponding to nāscī, to be born. en.wiktionary.org
- Pregnant displaced Old English bearnēacen. en.wiktionary.org
- Bearnēacen literally means child-enlarged. en.wiktionary.org
The apparent source is Middle French pregnant, preignant, meaning "pressing, compelling," which was formed as the present participle of the verb prembre ("to press"). Behind that verb lies Latin premere, also meaning "to press."