single parent

verb

"single-parent" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“single parent” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To act as the only guardian of offspring.

Corpus desk

Index EN-single-parent · single parent · English

single parent · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for single parent
PropertyValue
Headwordsingle parent
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “single parent” in English

single parentsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

single parent is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To act as the only guardian of offspring.".

Zero misspellings are on record for single parent in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is single parent, spelled S-I-N-G-L-E- -P-A-R-E-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    To act as the only guardian of offspring.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how single parent appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. My husband would, no doubt, be the slightest bit fatigued from having single-parented a precocious preschooler 24/7 for a week.
  2. My degrees and credentials are largely oriented to working with children and young adults in many different capacities. And I've single parented.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "single parent"?
"single parent" is spelled S-I-N-G-L-E- -P-A-R-E-N-T.
What does "single parent" mean?
As a verb, "single parent" means: To act as the only guardian of offspring.
What language does "single parent" come from?
"single parent" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list