Meanings
plural bonus parents
- A person who serves in a parental role to a child who has a different biological parent, with or without formally marrying the child’s other parent or going through the formal process of adoption.
Eventually, some stepparents will take on a great deal of status with their stepchildren, moving into a bonus parent role.
2004, The Complete Parenting Book: Practical Help from Leading Experts, Revell, →ISBN, page 4391 more example
Later when my parents remarried we saw that both Mum and Rob had the opportunity for second-chance happiness. And we had a bonus parent in stepfather Ross.
1992, Penelope Hansen, My Father and Me: New Zealand Women Remember, Tandem Press, →ISBN, page 233Synonyms: alloparent
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA person who serves in a parental role to a child who has a different biological parent, with or without formally marrying the child’s other parent or going through the formal process of adoption.
Origin
Cite this entry
bonus parent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonus%20parent
“bonus parent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonus%20parent. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bonus parent,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonus%20parent.
Source: bonus parent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.