What does reared mean?
Reared is the past tense and past participle of rear and is most often used for the way a child or young person is brought up. In this sense it can imply care, discipline, values, and circumstances passed on during upbringing: children reared in a strict household may develop very different habits from those reared in a permissive one. The word also has an agricultural sense, describing cattle, sheep, or other animals bred or kept for a particular purpose. Less commonly, reared can describe something made to rise, although raised is more usual in modern prose. Raised is generally the more neutral and flexible alternative, while reared can place greater emphasis on the developmental process itself. As a participle, reared normally follows an auxiliary when it stands alone, as in 'She was reared on a farm.' Because the word can evoke both human formation and animal husbandry, it is especially useful where the process of growth, training, or beginning life is central to the meaning.
To bring up a child or young person; to breed or raise animals; or, less commonly, to cause something to rise.
"They reared three children and a flock of sheep."
In the child-rearing sense, reared commonly appears in the passive or as a past participle.
Describing a person or animal that has been brought up or bred in a specified way.
"The sanctuary prepares human-reared wolves for release into the wild."
This participial use is less common than the verbal and past-participle uses.
Reared captures both the nurture of a child and the breeding of an animal—one word, two kinds of beginning.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does reared come from?
Reared was formed by adding the suffix -ed to rear, making it the past tense and past participle of that verb. Rear comes from Old English rǣran, meaning 'to raise' or 'to elevate,' and is cognate with words such as raise and rise, which ultimately derive from the same Germanic root associated with lifting or making something stand. The older agricultural meaning developed naturally from the idea of raising young animals.
Related word forms
How reared is actually used
Reared is standard in British and American English. It is often more narrative or emphatic than raised, especially when discussing a child's upbringing: 'well-reared' can carry a favorable social judgment. Its agricultural use is also common.
Easily confused with reared
Raised is the more general and flexible term for bringing up a child or animal, while reared often emphasizes the developmental process or the circumstances of upbringing.