engender

verb

en·​gen·​der in-ˈjen-dər 

en-

engendered; engendering in-ˈjen-d(ə-)riŋ 

en-

transitive verb

1

: beget, procreate

2

: to cause to exist or to develop : produce

policies that have engendered controversy

intransitive verb

: to assume form : originate

Did you know?

A good paragraph about engender will engender understanding in the reader. Like its synonym generate, engender comes from the Latin verb generare, meaning “to generate” or “to beget,” and when the word was first used in the 14th century, engender meant “propagate” or “procreate.” That literal meaning having to do with creating offspring (which generate shared when it was adopted in the early 16th century) was soon joined by the “to cause to exist or develop; to produce” meaning most familiar to us today. Generare didn’t just engender generate and engender; regenerate, degenerate, and generation have the same Latin root. As you might suspect, the list of engender relatives does not end there. Generare comes from the Latin noun genus, meaning “origin” or “kind.” From this source we took our own word genus, plus gender, general, and generic, among other words.

Synonyms

• beget
• breed
• bring
• bring about
• bring on
• catalyze
• cause
• create
• do
• draw on
• effect
• effectuate
• generate
• induce
• invoke
• make
• occasion
• produce
• prompt
• result (in)
• spawn
• translate (into)
• work
• yield

Examples of engender in a Sentence

The issue has engendered a considerable amount of debate.

a suggestion to go out for pizza that didn't seem to engender any interest

Recent Examples on the Web

For Valéry, Teste counts as a monster only in the way that a biologist would regard a unique specimen: as a notable mutation with the potential to engender a new lineage. —Benjamin Kunkel, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024

Moderated by the Founder of Women of the World Foundation, Jude Kelly, the CHOGM side-event was one of a series that have been taking place across the Commonwealth to engender more effective collaboration between governments, leaders in civil society and the private sector to confront the issue. —Simon Perry, People.com, 24 Oct. 2024

Not only through its focus on characters — which engendered shared intimacies about romance, community, and faith that bond the audience to people who feel grounded in the rich dirt of Kansas — but through how that focus was framed. —Ben Travers, IndieWire, 6 Dec. 2024

This line is reflexively repeated by pundits, talkers, and thinkers on both sides of the American political divide, and that repetition always engenders a great deal of backlash. —Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 1 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English engendren, from Anglo-French engendrer, from Latin ingenerare, from in- + generare to generate

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Podcast

Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!

Kids Definition

engender

verb

en·​gen·​der in-ˈjen-dər 

engendered; engendering -d(ə-)riŋ 

1

: to reproduce offspring

2

: to be the source or cause of : produce

tensions that engender emotional conflicts