{
    "term": "foster",
    "partOfSpeech": "verb",
    "ox5000": true,
    "cefr": "c1",
    "verbForms": {
        "presentSimple": {
            "iYouWeThey": "foster",
            "heSheIt": "fosters"
        },
        "pastSimple": "fostered",
        "pastParticiple": "fostered",
        "ingForm": "fostering"
    },
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "to encourage something to develop",
            "sensetop": "foster something",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The club's aim is to foster better relations within the community."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The school has carefully fostered its progressive image."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Such organizations need to foster innovation."
                }
            ],
            "synonyms": "encourage, promote",
            "collocations": {
                "adverb": ["carefully", "deliberately"],
                "verb + foster": ["help (to)", "be designed to"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "to take another person’s child into your home for a period of time, without becoming his or her legal parents",
            "sensetop": "foster (somebody)",
            "labels": "(especially British English)(especially US English)(especially North American English)(especially British English)(British English)(North American English)(especially British English)",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "They have fostered over 60 children during the past ten years."
                },
                {
                    "text": "We couldn't adopt a child, so we decided to foster."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Life stages", "Family and relationships"]
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɒstə(r)/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/foster__gb_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɒstəz/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/fosters__gb_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɒstəd/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/fostered__gb_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɒstərɪŋ/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/fostering__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɑːstər/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/foster__us_2_rr.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɑːstərz/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/fosters__us_4.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɑːstərd/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/fostered__us_4.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɑːstərɪŋ/",
                "audio": "fo/foster/fostering__us_5.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Old English fōstrian ‘feed, nourish’, from fōster ‘food, nourishment’, of Germanic origin; related to food. The sense ‘bring up another's (originally also one's own) child’ dates from Middle English."
}