Definition of 'father'
Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular present tense fathers, present participle fathering, past tense, past participle fathered
1. family noun
Your father is your male parent. You can also call someone your father if he brings you up as if he were this man.
2. transitive verb
3. countable noun
The man who invented or started something is sometimes referred to as the father of that thing.
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
British English pronunciation
American English pronunciation
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Word Frequency
father in American English
noun
1.
a man who has begotten a child; esp., a man as he is related to his child or children
3.
the male parent of a plant or animal
4.
a person regarded as a male parent; protector
5. [F-]; Epithet
God, or God as the first person in the Trinity
9.
a senator of ancient Rome
11. [often F-]
12. [often F-]
a Christian priest
, used esp. as a title verb transitive
13.
to be the father of; beget
15.
to bring into being; found, originate, or invent
16.
to take the responsibility for
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Word origin
ME fader < OE fæder, akin to ON fathir, OHG fater, Goth fadar < IE *pətḗr > L pater, Gr patēr, Sans pitár: ult. origin prob. echoic of baby talk, as in papa, Hindi bābūWord Frequency
father in American English
(ˈfɑːðər)
noun
1.
a male parent
2.
a father-in-law, stepfather, or adoptive father
3.
any male ancestor, esp. the founder of a race, family, or line; progenitor
4.
a man who exercises paternal care over other persons; paternal protector or provider
a father to the poor
5.
a person who has originated or established something
the father of modern psychology
the founding fathers
6.
The horseless carriage was the father of the modern automobile
7.
one of the leading men in a city, town, etc
a scandal involving several of the city fathers
9.
a priest
11.
a title of respect for an elderly man
12. See the Father
13. Also called: church father Ecclesiastical History
any of the chief early Christian writers, whose works are the main sources for the history, doctrines, and observances of the church in the early ages
14. Ecclesiast
a. (often cap)
a title of reverence, as for church dignitaries, officers of monasteries, monks, confessors, and esp. priests
b.
a person bearing this title
15. See fathers
transitive verb
16.
to beget
17.
to be the creator, founder, or author of; originate
18.
to act as a father toward
19.
to acknowledge oneself the father of
20.
to assume as one's own; take the responsibility of
21.
to charge with the begetting of
intransitive verb
22.
to perform the tasks or duties of a male parent; act paternally
Somehow he was able to write a book while fathering
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019
by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Derived forms
fatherlike adjective
Word origin
[bef. 900; ME fader, OE fæder; c. G Vater, L pater, Gk pate᷄r, Skt pitar, OIr athir, Armenian hayr]Word Frequency
father in British English
verb (transitive)
11.
to create, found, originate, etc
12.
to act as a father to
13.
to acknowledge oneself as father or originator of
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Derived forms
fathering (ˈfathering) noun
Word origin
Old English fæder; related to Old Norse fathir, Old Frisian feder, Old High German fater, Latin pater, Greek patēr, Sanskrit pitrWord Frequency
Father in British English
Examples of 'father' in a sentence
father
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Quotations
Honour thy father and thy mother Bible: Exodus
No man can know who was his fatherOdyssey
It's all any reasonable child can expect if the dad is present at the conceptionEntertaining Mr. Sloane
It is a wise father that knows his own childThe Merchant of Venice
Like father like son
Trends of
father
View usage over:
Source: Google Books Ngram Viewer
In other languages
father
- American English: father /ˈfɑðər/
- Arabic: أَب
- Brazilian Portuguese: pai
- Chinese: 父亲
- Croatian: otac
- Czech: otec
- Danish: far
- Dutch: vader
- European Spanish: padre
- Finnish: isä
- French: père
- German: Vater
- Greek: πατέρας
- Italian: padre
- Japanese: 父
- Korean: 아버지
- Norwegian: far
- Polish: ojciec
- European Portuguese: pai
- Romanian: tată
- Russian: отец
- Spanish: padre
- Swedish: far förälder
- Thai: พ่อ
- Turkish: baba
- Ukrainian: батько
- Vietnamese: bố
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Related terms of
father
Source
Definition of father from the Collins English Dictionary
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