Definition of ENGENDER

Did You Know?

When "engender" was first used in the 14th century, it meant "propagate" or "procreate," but extended meanings soon developed. "Engender" comes from the Latin verb generare, which means "to generate" or "to beget." "Generate," "regenerate," "degenerate," and "generation" are of course related to the Latin verb as well. As you might suspect, the list of "engender" relatives does not end there. "Generare" comes from the Latin noun genus, meaning "birth," "race," or "kind." From this source we have our own word genus, plus "gender," "general," and "generic," among other words.

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

As an increasingly powerful far right urges a return to the nationstate as a way of governing—and also of being—few in Europe today seem to remember the catastrophes that creeds of exclusion can engender. — James Mcauley, Town & Country, "A Secret Paris Museum and an Aristocratic Family Decimated by the Holocaust," 9 Feb. 2017 Still, October is a long way off and engendering confidence that anyone in the rotation beyond ace Luis Severino can regularly deliver command performances is a shaky proposition. — New York Times, "Cole Hamels Advertises Himself to the Yankees by Beating Them," 23 May 2018 What vision of eventual success first engendered the policy of putting children into cage-like facilities and now has the administration picking a fight with federal courts? — Evan Horowitz, BostonGlobe.com, "Families will be kept together — in detention. What does Trump hope to gain?," 20 June 2018 Chinese leaders see those religions as foreign to China and want to eradicate symbols and practices that engender among believers a sense of having an identity separate from their duties as Chinese citizens. — Chun Han Wong, WSJ, "China Applies Xinjiang’s Policing Lessons to Other Muslim Areas," 23 Dec. 2018 The Smart Cities ideal—at least, under non-authoritarian regimes—is to use all that data to provide services better and more efficiently, not to engender urban dystopia. — Dan Rosenbaum, Ars Technica, "All hail the AI overlord: Smart cities and the AI Internet of Things," 7 Dec. 2018 The economy king, however, is the also new-for-2018 1.6-liter turbodiesel, a rarity in the compact crossover segment that engenders EPAs of 28 and 39 in a front-drive setting. — Al Haas, Philly.com, "Redesigned GMC Terrain Denali offers style, space, agility | Al Haas," 10 Apr. 2018 The trade conflict between Washington and Beijing,which has engendered tariffs on a range of each other’s products, has made many manufacturers worried about the economic and political outlook. — Takashi Mochizuki, WSJ, "Apple Supplier Issues Profit Warning, Blames Weak Chinese Demand," 17 Jan. 2019 Most analysts attribute the agency's recent problems to the relatively low wages Russia pays in its aerospace industry and the difficulty this has engendered in attracting and retaining a qualified workforce, resulting in quality-control issues. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Russian space leader issues decree against trash, “sloppy” work attitudes," 7 Nov. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'engender.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.