nurturant

English

Etymology

From nurture +‎ -ant.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnəːtʃəɹənt/

Adjective

nurturant (comparative more nurturant, superlative most nurturant)

1. (psychology) That provides nourishment; nurturing. [from 20th c.]
   • 1981 August 1, Maida Tilchen, Joan Larkin, Elly Bulkin, “Getting to Know Who We Are: The Lesbian Poetry Tradition”, in Gay Community News, page 9:

     Go to readings, read books like this anthology, read the publications, become nurturant and enriched and educated about what's going on around them, form writing support groups.

   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     In other words, liberalism defines government as tyrant father but demands it behave as nurturant mother.

Related terms

• nurturance

Noun

nurturant (plural nurturants)

1. That which nurtures; a nurturing factor or influence.
   • 1975, Austin Herbert Riesen, The developmental neuropsychology of sensory deprivation, page 171:

     By removing one or another aspect from an organism's visual environment, one can determine the essential visual nurturants. The latter are then considered the basic visual-environmental determinants of the development of visual perception.