# pregnant
## English
### Alternative forms

* prægnant (obsolete)
* pregnaunt (obsolete)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpɹɛɡnənt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛɡnənt
* Hyphenation: preg‧nant

### Etymology 1

From Middle English preignant, from Old French preignant, pregnant, also prenant (compare archaic Modern French prégnant), and their source, Latin praegnāns (“pregnant”), probably from prae- (“pre-”) + *gnāscī, an archaic form of nāscī (“to be born”). Displaced Old English bearnēacen (literally "child-enlarged").

#### Adjective

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)
* (chiefly not comparable) Carrying developing offspring within the body.
    I went to the doctor and, guess what, I’m pregnant!
    I became pregnant in July 2014.
** 2017 July 13, Bonnie Rochman, “Mothers-To-Be Aren’t Told Enough About Genetic Testing”, in Time‎:Once upon a time, not so long ago, women got pregnant and spent nine months in suspense before finding out if they were having a boy or a girl. But today? That waiting game is completely outdated, even quaint.
** 2025 February 19, Christian Wolmar, “Mind your language...”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 34:It suggests that pregnant women should be called pregnant people, presumably on the basis that just perhaps there may be a pregnant man somewhere.
** (sometimes proscribed) Of a couple: expecting a baby together.
    We are pregnant.
* (comparable) Meaningful, having numerous possibilities or implications; full of promise; abounding in ability, resources, etc.
    a pregnant pause
** c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:wherein the pregnant enemy does much
** 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 April 2019:The many tear-jerkers deal with finality, with death and the end of love, with a stoicism pregnant with feeling.
* (poetic) Fecund, fertile, prolific (usually of soil, ground, etc.).
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:The sunne-beames bright vpon her body playd, / Being through former bathing mollifide, / And pierst into her wombe, where they embayd / With so sweet sence and secret power vnspide, / That in her pregnant flesh they shortly fructifide.
* (obsolete) Affording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt.
** c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:play at subtill games; faire vertues all; To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant
* (obsolete) Ready-witted; clever; ingenious.

##### Synonyms

* (carrying offspring (standard)): expecting, expecting a baby, expectant, gravid (of animals only), with child, fertilized, gone (for a particular number of months)
* (carrying offspring (colloquial/slang)): eating for two, having a bun in the oven, in a family way, knocked up, preggers, up the duff, up the spout
* (carrying offspring (euphemistic)): in an interesting condition, in a family way
* (having many possibilities or implications): meaningful, significant
* See also Thesaurus:pregnant

##### Hyponyms

* (carrying developing offspring): in trouble

##### Derived terms

* affirmative pregnant
* barefoot and pregnant
* big pregnant
* fall pregnant
* impregnant
* I'm pregnant
* midpregnant
* negative pregnant
* nonpregnant
* pregnant and barefoot
* pregnant chad
* pregnant construction
* pregnant denial
* pregnantly
* pregnantness
* pregnant pause
* pregnant woman
* prepregnant
* pseudopregnant
* unpregnant
* you can't be half pregnant

##### Related terms

* impregnate
* pregnancy

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Noun

pregnant (plural pregnants)
* A pregnant person.
** 1843, William Robert Wilde, Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions:The Entbundenen, or those already delivered, are separate from those pregnants awaiting their accouchement

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

Apparently from Middle French pregnant, preignant (“pressing, compelling”), present participle of prembre (“to press”), from Latin premere (“to press”).

#### Adjective

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)
* (now rare) Compelling; clear, evident. [from 14th c.]
** 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC: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.

### References

* “Mila Kunis Tells Fathers-to-Be to Stop Saying 'We're Pregnant'”, in ABC News‎, 2014 June 11, archived from the original on 2014-06-12.

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French pregnant, from Old French pregnant, from Latin praegnāns.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /prɛxˈnɑnt/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: preg‧nant
* Rhymes: -ɑnt

### Adjective

pregnant (comparative pregnanter, superlative pregnantst)
* poignant, incisive
* meaningful, polysemic
* (obsolete) important

#### Declension
## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from German prägnant and French prégnant.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /preɡˈnant/
* Rhymes: -ant
* Hyphenation: preg‧nant

### Adjective

pregnant m or n (feminine singular pregnantă, masculine plural pregnanți, feminine and neuter plural pregnante)
* (literary) evident, marked, manifest
    Synonym: (literary) vădit

#### Declension
### References

* pregnant in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

## Swedish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /prɛɡˈnant/

### Adjective

pregnant (comparative pregnantare, superlative pregnantast)
* pregnant (clear and pithy, of an expression, language, or the like)
* striking (distinctive, pronounced)

#### Usage notes

Pregnant as in carrying a baby is gravid (of a human) or dräktig (of an animal).

#### Declension

$^1$ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. $^2$ Dated or archaic. $^3$ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

### References

* pregnant in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* pregnant in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* pregnant in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)