{"id":946,"date":"2022-09-12T18:33:05","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T18:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glossary.dream.press\/glossary\/%group%\/parent-theme\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T23:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T23:38:13","slug":"parent-theme","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/glossary.dream.press\/glossary\/wordpress\/parent-theme\/","title":{"rendered":"Parent Theme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Any changes you make to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/glossary\/wordpress\/theme\/\">theme\u2019s<\/a> code will disappear when you update it. However, not updating themes is not an option because outdated add-ons can lead to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/glossary\/wordpress\/wordpress\/\">WordPress<\/a> vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The safest way to customize a theme is by using a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/glossary\/wordpress\/child-theme\/\">child theme<\/a>. A child theme is a theme that inherits the templates, style, and functionality of a parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The parent theme can be any that you choose. After creating a child theme, you can make any changes you want to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The child theme will work and look just as its parent, aside from the changes you make. Most importantly, you won\u2019t lose these customizations when updating the parent theme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"When working with WordPress child themes, there's always a parent theme. It's the theme that the child inherits its style and functionality from. Any changes to the child theme won't impact the parent's code."},"group":[18],"class_list":["post-946","glossary","type-glossary","status-publish","hentry","group-wordpress"],"acf":{"cta":"Managed WP Hosting","term_definition":"When working with WordPress child themes, there's always a parent theme. It's the theme that the child inherits its style and functionality from. Any changes to the child theme won't impact the parent's code.","h2_more":"More About Parent Themes","title_tag":"What is a Parent Theme?"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Parent Theme? - DreamHost Glossary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When working with WordPress child themes, there&#039;s always a parent theme. It&#039;s the theme that the child inherits its style and functionality from. 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