fostering
noun, verb
fostering is a noun meaning “Raising someone to be an accepted member of the community” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-S-T-E-R-I-N-G and has 3 syllables, and it appears 2.2 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of fostering is fosterings.
What does fostering mean?
noun
- 1
Raising someone to be an accepted member of the community.
- 2
Encouragement; aiding the development of something.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of foster
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce fostering?
- US
Fostering has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-fostering.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of fostering
- fosterings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is fostering?
Fostering appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Fostering in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | éduquer quelqu'un , encourager quelqu'un |
| Portuguese | acolhimento |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.