Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Orphan |
OrphanAdjective1. Deprived of parents by death or desertion. Noun1. A child who has lost both parents. Verb1. Deprive of parents. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "orphan" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | ORPHAN, n. A living person whom death has deprived of the power of filial ingratitude -- a privation appealing with a particular eloquence to all that is sympathetic in human nature. When young the orphan is commonly sent to an asylum, where by careful cultivation of its rudimentary sense of locality it is taught to know its place. It is then instructed in the arts of dependence and servitude and eventually turned loose to prey upon the world as a bootblack or scullery maid. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Computing | Orphan n. [Unix] A process whose parent has died; one inherited by `init(1)'. Compare zombie. Source: Jargon File. |
Dream Interpretation | Condoling with orphans in a dream, means that the unhappy cares of others will touch your sympathies and cause you to sacrifice much personal enjoyment. If the orphans be related to you, new duties will come into your life, causing estrangement from friends ant from some person held above mere friendly liking. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Immigration | The Immigration and Nationality Act provides a definition of an orphan for the purposes of immigration to the United States. A child may be considered an orphan because of the death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents. The child of an unwed mother or surviving parent may be considered an orphan if that parent is unable to care for the child properly and has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption. The child of an unwed mother may be considered an orphan, as long as the mother does not marry (which would result in the child's having a stepfather) and as long as the child's biological father has not legitimated the child. If the father legitimates the child or the mother marries, the mother is no longer considered a sole parent. The child of a surviving parent may also be an orphan if the surviving parent has not married since the death of the other parent (which would result in the child's having a stepfather or stepmother).Note: Prospective adoptive parents should be sure that a child fits the definition of "orphan" before adopting a child from another country, because not all children adopted abroad meet the definition of "orphan," and therefore may not be eligible to immigrate to the United States. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An orphan is one (typically a child) whose parents have died; most adults beyond a certain age have lost their parents and are not generally refered to as orphans. Today, in the first world, most orphans are cared for by adoption or, in the case of older children and minorities, foster care.In past times, they often lived homeless as "street urchins", or were cared for in almshouses, orphanages, or occasionally monasteries; most modern people feel that this was a mistake, or, at the least, provided suboptimal care. In particular, almshouses were often shared with the adult homeless and the (sometimes dangerously) mentally ill in an age when many mental illnesses were incurable.
In some nations faced with war and AIDS, a significant proportion of the young population is orphaned, which is a major humanitarian crisis. In the People's Republic of China, infant daughters are sometimes abandoned due to the one child policy, which also creates a significant number of effective orphans.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Orphan."
Synonym: OrphanSynonym: orphaned (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Infant | Child, bairn, little one, brat, chit, pickaninny, urchin; bantling, bratling; elf. youth, boy, lad, stripling, youngster, youngun, younker, callant, whipster, whippersnapper, whiffet, schoolboy, hobbledehoy, hopeful, cadet, minor, master. scion; sap, seedling; tendril, olive branch, nestling, chicken, larva, chrysalis, tadpole, whelp, cub, pullet, fry, callow; codlin,codling; foetus, calf, colt, pup, foal, kitten; lamb, lambkin; aurelia, caterpillar, cocoon, nymph, nympha, orphan, pupa, staddle. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Orphan |
| English words defined with "orphan": Hershey ♦ Milton Snavely Hershey ♦ Orphanet, Orphanhood, Orphaning, Orpheline ♦ take. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "orphan": Amina, Aviadenovirus ♦ Bromodeoxyuridine ♦ Madras System of Education, May Meetings, Monimia ♦ Observe, orphan process ♦ Say ♦ zombie process. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "orphan": Orpheline. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Orphan" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Indonesian (yatim). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | If you'll marry, marry an orphan. (Beregis avtomobilya; writing credit: Emil Braginsky; Eldar Ryazanov) Oh, she did it; the jury just took pity on her for being an orphan. (Ally McBeal; writing credit: Henri Vernes) Nah none taken sir, I grew up here, all I ever knew of Ireland was from the talk of the others at the orphan asylum (Gangs of New York; writing credit: Jay Cocks) Come on Orphan, lets play (Daredevil; writing credit: Mark Steven Johnson) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Ladies in Distress: Saving the Orphan from the Tiger Pit (1966) The Orphan Saved the Adoptive Mother (1960) Often an Orphan (1949) Awful Orphan (1949) The Little Orphan (1948) | |
Song Titles | Orphan Girl (performing artist: Gilligan Welch) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
References | |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Oh! is that your father an' mother? -- you don't say! : gee, you certainly ain't no orphan ... Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The Riots at New York--the rioters burning and sacking the colored orphan asylum. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Ottilie Orphan Home, 85th to 87th Avenues, 144th to 148th Streets, Jamaica, New York City, N.Y. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Charleston, S.C. Orphan Asylum (160 Calhoun Street). Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Orphan house, Charleston, S.C. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Nursery, orphan infants, Manzanar Relocation Center, California / photograph by Ansel Adams. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Texas State Orphan Home, Corsicana, Tex., June 10, 1914. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Irkutsk - church and the Bazanoff orphan asylum. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "At the mouth of the baldhead" by Jeff L Commentary: "On the beautiful shore of lake superior, at the mouth of the bald head river... at the end of the orphan lake trail. if you ever get a chance i encourage you to check out this area about an hour or so north of sault ste. marie, ontario." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
President John F. Kennedy | There's an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | This orphan had adopted the people |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | It encourages, promotes, and supports scientific research and accumulates and disseminates information on orphan drugs and devices. (references) | |
Classical phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare metabolic disorder (and orphan disease) that usually results from a deficiency of a liver enzyme known as phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH). (references) | ||
Children | Georgia | Orphan children in government institutions were not eligible for foreign adoption. (references) |
Zambia | Approximately 75 percent of all households are caring for at least one orphan; these children face greater risks of child abuse, sexual abuse, and child labor. (references) | |
Zimbabwe | At the provincial and national levels, the governments are saddled with increasing demands for community orphan projects, orphanages, health care, and school fees. (references) | |
Economic History | Malawi | Health Volunteers work in areas of AIDS education, orphan care, home-based care, youth and at-risk groups, child survival activities, nutrition, disease prevention, environmental health and women's health issues. (references) |
Travel | Ghana | North Labone Estate, Orphan Crescent, Labone. (references) |
Worker Rights | Moldova | Allegedly, traffickers know when orphan girls are to be turned out of their institutions and are waiting for them. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Orphan" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.91% of the time. "Orphan" is used about 162 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.91% | 157 | 25,059 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.47% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.62% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 162 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "orphan". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Ithmah | N/A | Biblical | An orphan |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
| Country | Name |
| USA | Orphan Medical, Inc. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "orphan": become an orphan ♦ become orphan ♦ orphan drug legislation ♦ Orphan Drug Production ♦ orphan process ♦ orphan project ♦ orphan task ♦ war orphan. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "orphan": orphan-asylum, orphan-hospital, orphan-house, orphan-like, orphan-maker. | |
Ending with "orphan": adopt-an-orphan, half-orphan. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "orphan"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | weeskind, ouerloos. (various references) | |
Albanian | jetim (fatherless), bonjak. (various references) | |
Arabic | يتيم (fatherless), تم (orphanage, orphanhood), صار يتيما. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | сирашки, сирак, осиротявам. (various references) | |
Chinese | 孤兒 , 孤儿 (Orphans). (various references) | |
Czech | osiřelý (orphaned), sirotek. (various references) | |
Danish | horeunge (club line, widow), forældreløst barn, enke (widow). (various references) | |
Dutch | wees (be), ouderloos. (various references) | |
Esperanto | orfo, orfa. (various references) | |
Faeroese | foreldraloysingur. (various references) | |
Farsi | یتیم کردن , طفل یتیم , بی پدرومادر. (various references) | |
Finnish | orporivi (club line, widow), orpo (orphan forlorn), riesa (nuisance), leskirivi (club line, widow), äpärä (bastard, illegitimate). (various references) | |
French | orphelin (orphaned). (various references) | |
German | Waise, Waisenkind. (various references) | |
Greek | ορφανός, ορφανό (club line, widow). (various references) | |
Hebrew | יתום (bereaved, destitute, fatherless), ליתם. (various references) | |
Hungarian | árva (orphaned, unparented). (various references) | |
Indonesian | yatim (fatherless), anak yatim. (various references) | |
Italian | orfano. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 遺児 , 遺孤 , 親無し子 (parentless child), 孤児 , 孤児 , 孤 , みなし子 (seeing through another person's scheme). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | おやなしご (parentless child), いこ (unfairness), いじ (appetite, backbone, disposition, ideogram, maintenance, medical practice, memories, obstinacy, order of rank, order of seating, preservation, reminiscences, spirit, willpower), こじ (a lay Buddhist, ancient events, ancient writing, decline positively, display, historical fact, insistence, old temple, origin, ostentation, persistence, strong-willed, tradition), みなしご. (various references) | |
Korean | 고아 (Orphans). (various references) | |
Malay | yatim. (various references) | |
Manx | treoghan. (various references) | |
Papiamen | wérfano. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | orphanay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | órfão (fatherless, orphaned). (various references) | |
Romanian | orfan (fatherless, orphaned), lãsa orfan, fãrã pãrinţi. (various references) | |
Russian | сиротский, сирота сиротский, сирота, висячая строка (widow). (various references) | |
Scottish | dìlleachdan (an orphan). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sirotan, siroče (fatherless), načiniti siročetom, bez zaštite (undefended), bez oca i majke. (various references) | |
Spanish | huérfano (kiddy, orphaned). (various references) | |
Swedish | göra föräldralös, föräldrarlös, föräldralöst barn, föräldralös, övergiven (abandoned, derelict, desolate, forlorn, forsaken, lorn, orphane), änka (widow). (various references) | |
Thai | เด็กกำพร้า, ทำให้เป็นเด็กกำพร้า. (various references) | |
Turkish | yetim bırakmak, yetim (fatherless, half-orphan), kimsesiz bırakmak (desolate, orphanize), kimsesiz çocuk (waif), kimsesiz (all alone, alone, desolate, forlorn, lone, outcast, solitary), öksüz (half-orphan, motherless, parentless). (various references) | |
Turkmen | яetim. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | сирітський, сирота, осиротити, зробити сиротою, людина, позбавлена чогось. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | mồ côi (orphanize), đứa trẻ mồ côi (orphanize). (various references) | |
Welsh | amddifad (destitute). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | nu-sig. (various references) |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | orphanos. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | orfani, orfanis, orfano, orfanorum, orfanos, orfanum, orphanus, pupilli, pupillis, pupillo, pupillorum, pupillos, pupillum, pupillus, pupillus pupilla. (various references) |
| Late Latin | 300-700 | orphanus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "orphan": orphanage, orphanages, orphaned, orphanhood, orphanhoods, orphaning, orphans. (additional references) | |
| |
"Orphan" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: drophar, korhian, ophan, ophen, ophra, oppian, Orhon, orhpan, orohai, Orpa, orphane, Orphas, orphean, orphee, Pokphand, rohan, tryphan. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "orphan" (pronounced ô"rfun) |
| 5 | ô" r f u n | endorphin, morphin. |
| 3 | -f u n | acetaminophen, deafen, dolphin, Griffon, hyphen, ibuprofen, muffin, often, paraffin, siphon, soften, stiffen, syphon, tamoxifen, toughen. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-h-n-o-p-r" | |
-1 letter: apron. | |
-2 letters: harp, hoar, hora, horn, opah, phon, porn, prao, proa, roan. | |
-3 letters: hao, hap, hon, hop, nah, nap, noh, nor, oar, ora, pah, pan, par, poh, pro, rah, ran, rap, rho. | |
-4 letters: ah, an, ar, ha, ho, na, no, oh, on, op, or, pa. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-h-n-o-p-r" | |
+1 letter: alphorn, anaphor, harpoon, orphans. | |
+2 letters: alphorns, anaphora, anaphors, canephor, chaperon, earphone, harpoons, orphaned, prochain. | |
+3 letters: alpenhorn, anaphoras, anaphoric, anthropic, canephors, chaperone, chaperons, earphones, harpooned, harpooner, monograph, nomograph, orphanage, orphaning, parathion, parhelion, pharaonic, phonogram, pronephra. | |
+4 letters: alpenhorns, anamorphic, anastrophe, anemograph, anthropoid, aphorising, aphorizing, atrophying, barhopping, chaperoned, chaperones, euphoriant, gramophone, granophyre, harpooners, harpooning, hierophant, homopteran, hydrophane, hydroplane, hypertonia, monographs, morphactin, nalorphine, naturopath, neuropathy, nomographs, nomography, oropharynx, orphanages, orphanhood, pantograph, parathions, parenthood, phanerogam, pheromonal, phonograms, phonograph, protohuman, punchboard, radiophone, renography, rhizoplane, sonography, tryptophan, uphoarding, venography, vibraphone. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Names: Derived from 14. Names: Company Usage 15. Expressions 16. Expressions: Internet | 17. Translations: Modern 18. Translations: Ancient 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
