Adjacent Words

Pregnant definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PREG'NANT, a. [L. proegnans; supposed to be compounded of proe, before, and geno; Gr. to beget.]
1. Being with young, as a female; breeding; teeming.
2. Fruitful; fertile; impregnating; as pregnant streams.
3. Full of consequence; as a pregnant instance of infatuation.
An egregious and pregnant instance how far virtue surpasses ingenuity.
4. East to admit or receive.
5. Free; kind; ready; witty; apt. [Not proper.]
6. Plain; clear; evident; full. [Not in use.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: carrying developing offspring within the body or being about to produce new life [ant: nonpregnant]
2: rich in significance or implication; "a meaning look" [syn: meaning, pregnant, significant]
3: filled with or attended with; "words fraught with meaning"; "an incident fraught with danger"; "a silence pregnant with suspense" [syn: fraught, pregnant]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin praegnant-, praegnans carrying a fetus, alteration of praegnas, from prae- pre- + -gnas (akin to gignere to give birth to) — more at kin Date: 14th century 1. archaic cogent 2. abounding in fancy, wit, or resourcefulness ; inventive <all this has been said…by great and pregnant artists — Times Literary Supplement> 3. rich in significance or implication ; meaningful, profound <the pregnant phrases of the Bible — Edmund Wilson> <a pregnant pause> 4. containing a developing embryo, fetus, or unborn offspring within the body ; gravid 5. having possibilities of development or consequence ; involving important issues ; momentous <draw inspiration from the heroic achievements of that pregnant age — Kemp Malone> 6. obsolete inclined, disposed <your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear — Shakespeare> 7. full, teeming • pregnantly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 (of a woman or female animal) having a child or young developing in the uterus. 2 full of meaning; significant or suggestive (a pregnant pause). 3 (esp. of a person's mind) imaginative, inventive. 4 (foll. by with) plentifully provided (pregnant with danger). Phrases and idioms: pregnant construction Gram. one in which more is implied than the words express (e.g. not have a chance implying of success etc.). Derivatives: pregnantly adv. (in sense 2). Etymology: ME f. F prégnant or L praegnans -antis, earlier praegnas (prob. as PRAE-, (g)nasci be born)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pregnant Preg"nant, a. [L. praegnans, -antis; prae before + genere, gignere, to beget: cf. F. pr['e]gnant. See Gender, 2d Kin.] 1. Being with young, as a female; having conceived; great with young; breeding; teeming; gravid; preparing to bring forth. 2. Heavy with important contents, significance, or issue; full of consequence or results; weighty; as, pregnant replies. `` A pregnant argument.'' --Prynne. `` A pregnant brevity.''

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pregnant Preg"nant, n. A pregnant woman. [R.] --Dunglison.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pregnant Preg"nant, a. [F. prenant taking. Cf. Pregnable.] Affording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt. [Obs.] `` Pregnant to good pity.'' --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If a woman or female animal is pregnant, she has a baby or babies developing in her body. Lena got pregnant and married... Tina was pregnant with their first daughter. ADJ 2. A pregnant silence or moment has a special meaning which is not obvious but which people are aware of. There was a long, pregnant silence. ADJ: ADJ n, v-link ADJ with n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. With child, gravid, great with child, enceinte. 2. Fraught, replete, full, teeming with meaning, important, significant. 3. Fruitful, fertile, prolific, productive, impregnating, generative, fecund, procreant.

Moby Thesaurus

abecedarian, aboriginal, abounding, abundant, allegorical, antenatal, anticipating, associational, autochthonous, basal, basic, beginning, big, big with child, big-laden, blooming, bountiful, breeding, budding, bursting, bursting out, carrying, carrying a fetus, central, charged, climacteric, conceptive, conceptual, connotational, connotative, consequential, copious, creative, critical, crucial, decisive, definable, denotational, denotative, elemental, elementary, eloquent, embryonic, emergent, esemplastic, exigent, expectant, expecting, expressive, extended, extensional, exuberant, facund, fecund, fertile, fetal, figurative, flourishing, formative, foundational, fraught, fructiferous, fruitful, full of meaning, full of point, full of substance, fundamental, generative, generous, genetic, germinal, gestating, gestatory, gone, gravid, great, heavy, heavy with child, ideational, ideative, imaginative, important, in embryo, in its infancy, in ovo, in the bud, inaugural, inceptive, inchoate, inchoative, incipient, incunabular, indicative, infant, infantile, ingenious, initial, initiative, initiatory, inspired, intelligible, intensional, interpretable, introductory, inventive, kairotic, knocked up, loaded, lush, luxuriant, meaning, meaningful, meaty, metaphorical, momentous, nascent, natal, notional, original, originative, parturient, pithy, pivotal, plenteous, plentiful, pointed, postnatal, preggers, prenatal, primal, primary, prime, primeval, primitive, primogenial, primordial, pristine, procreative, productive, proliferous, prolific, protogenic, radical, readable, referential, replete, rich, rudimental, rudimentary, seminal, sententious, shaping, significant, significative, substantial, suggestive, superabundant, superfetate, superimpregnated, swarming, symbolic, teeming, thriving, transferred, uberous, up the spout, ur, visioned, weighty, with child