MEANING
1. To encourage the growth or development of a quality, activity, relationship, or condition.
2. To care for a child without being their legal parent, often for a limited period.
Use it for
describing conditions that encourage cooperation; distinguishing support for development from a sufficient cause; discussing how practices help a capacity growDescribes conditions that encourage development without claiming a sole or sufficient cause, distinct from temporary parental care. Writing functions: Causation / Relationships, Analysis / Interpretation.
Words that belong together
- foster cooperation
- foster understanding
- foster innovation
On the page
The arrangement may foster cooperation without eliminating conflicts of interest.
The seminars were designed to foster critical discussion rather than agreement with the lecturer.
They fostered the child for two winters before the family was reunited.
The memoir distinguishes her foster family from the relatives who later adopted her.
Word forms
- Base
- foster
- Past tense
- fostered
- Past participle
- fostered
- Present participle
- fostering
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- foster
- Present continuous
- am/is/are fostering
- Present perfect
- have/has fostered
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been fostering
- Past
- fostered
- Past continuous
- was/were fostering
- Past perfect
- had fostered
- Past perfect continuous
- had been fostering
- Future
- will foster
- Future continuous
- will be fostering
- Future perfect
- will have fostered
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been fostering
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Verb and adjective. Fosters, fostered, fostered, fostering; future will foster. Foster an outcome; foster a child. Adjective precedes a noun, as in foster parent. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.