orphan

1. 1.

   deprive of parents

   Broaderdeprive

Other forms of orphan

plural

orphans·

past tense

orphanned·

present participle

orphanning·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about orphan

What does orphan mean?

orphan means "a child who has lost both parents". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in orphan?

orphan has 2 syllables: or-phan. The stress falls on "or". In IPA it is /ˈɔɹfən/.

Is orphan a common word?

orphan is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.