3 ms·

Yes, they are generally synonyms. It’s not a new term.

• MrOwnPut 4y ago
  As another user pointed out, why does the definition you posted qualify it with: "who has been adopted" > It's not a new term I see, it's somewhat new to me, when did the term come to popular usage? When was it "invented"?
  • dragonwriter 4y ago
    > when did the term come to popular usage? When was it “invented”? Its always been somewhat less popular than “biological parents”, but its been in wide use since somewhere about the late 1970s, and it (or at least, the narrower form “birth mother”) was in use by the early 1950s at the latest.
  • procinct 4y ago
    The reason why it’s qualified by people who are adopted is because people who aren’t would just refer to them as “parents” not “birth parents” since there is no need to make a distinction. People who are adopted have two sets of parents so it’s used to distinguish who they are referring to.