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orphanhood

Variant of orphan

noun

a child whose father and mother are dead: sometimes applied to a child who has lost only one parent by death

adjective

  1. being an orphan
  2. of or for orphans: an orphan home
  3. of a product that is medically valuable but is not produced because it lacks a profitable market, as a drug for a rare disease

transitive verb

to cause to become an orphan: orphaned by the war

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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