father
noun
a man who begets offspring; a male parent.
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father 2.
father
American
[fah-ther]
/ ˈfɑ ðər /
noun
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fathers
plural
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a man who begets offspring; a male parent.
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Often Father one’s own male parent.
When we were kids, Father read to us regularly.
My father is visiting us next week.
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a father-in-law, stepfather, foster father, male adoptive parent, or male guardian.
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Usually Father a term of address for a male parent or a man having or regarded as having the status, function, or authority of a male parent.
How are you, Father?
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any male ancestor, especially the founder of a family or line; progenitor.
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a man providing care or exercising influence or authority like that of a male parent.
The late professor was a father to all his students.
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the qualities characteristic of a father, such as paternal affection, protectiveness, responsibility, etc..
He had been quite a rake, but his newborn daughter quickly brought out the father in him.
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a man who has originated or established something.
Freud is often called the father of modern psychology.
The founding fathers of America took care to separate church and state.
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an early form; forerunner or prototype.
The horseless carriage was the father of the modern automobile.
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one of the most well-known or prominent men in a city, town, etc..
There was a scandal involving several of the city fathers.
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Chiefly British. the oldest living or serving member of a society, profession, etc.
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a title for something personified as an older or elderly man.
Father Time.
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a term of familiar address for an old or elderly man.
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Theology. Often the Father
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the Supreme Being; God.
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Christianity. the first person of the Trinity.
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Also called church father. Church 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.
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Ecclesiastical.
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Usually Father a title of reverence, as for church dignitaries, officers of monasteries, monks, confessors, and especially priests.
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Often Father a person bearing this title.
He is a father in the Catholic church.
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Roman History. fathers, conscript fathers.
adjective
verb (used with object)
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fathers,
present (3rd person singular)
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fathered,
past participle, past
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fathering
present participle
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to beget; be the father of.
He fathered seven children over three marriages.
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to be the male creator, founder, or author of; originate.
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to care for or protect like a father; act paternally toward.
He’s always fathering me and checking the oil in my car.
After Dad died, my uncle fathered my brother and me.
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Archaic. to acknowledge oneself the father or originator of.
He would only father the novel if it became popular.
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Archaic. to assume as one's own; take the responsibility of.
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Archaic. to charge someone with the begetting of.
Do not try to father the boy on me.
verb (used without object)
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fathers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fathered,
past participle, past
-
fathering
present participle
father
1
British
/ ˈfɑːðə /
noun
-
a male parent
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a person who founds a line or family; forefather
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any male acting in a paternal capacity
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(often capital) a respectful term of address for an old man
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a male who originates something
the father of modern psychology
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a leader of an association, council, etc; elder
a city father
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the eldest or most senior member in a society, profession, etc
father of the bar
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(often plural) a senator or patrician in ancient Rome
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informal a very large, severe, etc, example of a specified kind
the father of a whipping
verb
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to procreate or generate (offspring); beget
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to create, found, originate, etc
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to act as a father to
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to acknowledge oneself as father or originator of
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to impose or place without a just reason
Father
2
British
/ ˈfɑːðə /
noun
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God, esp when considered as the first person of the Christian Trinity
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Also called: Church Father. any of the writers on Christian doctrine of the pre-Scholastic period
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a title used for Christian priests
father
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fathersimple
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fatherssimple
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have fatheredperfect
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has fatheredperfect
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am fatheringprogressive
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are fatheringprogressive
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is fatheringprogressive
-
have been fatheringperfect progressive
-
has been fatheringperfect progressive
Past
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fatheredsimple
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had fatheredperfect
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was fatheringprogressive
-
were fatheringprogressive
-
had been fatheringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of father
First recorded before 900; Middle English fader, Old English fæder; cognate with Dutch vader, German Vater, Old Norse fathir; akin to Armenian hayr, Greek patḗr, Irish athair, Latin pater, Persian pedar, Sanskrit pitar-
Explanation
The verb father means to make children. If your dog, Tramp, fathers three puppies with the neighbor's dog, Lady, he is their father. A father is a male parent. Everyone has a biological father, even if they're not raised by him. You might call your father Dad, Daddy, Papa, Pops, or even Father. A man who helped found something, or invent it, can be called the father of that entity or invention. George Washington is considered a father of the United States, and Alexander Graham Bell is often referred to as the father of the telephone.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He appeared to have mended relations with his cancer-battling father, King Charles III during recent visits to the UK, but Harry reportedly remains estranged from his heir-to-the-throne brother Prince William and wife Catherine.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
PC Blades, a 37-year-old father of two, was described by his family as a "beloved husband" and the "most devoted father".
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
After losing his father at age 12, Curry earned a scholarship to the Kingswood School in Bath.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
My father, Vilas A. Jones, was mayor of Tarkio, in neighboring Atchison County, until shortly before his death in 2002.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
The confident, unhurried way he addressed my father, the dozens of jokes he made about Miss Genovese.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Ateneo de Zamboanga president Father Guillrey Andal, confirming the two fatalities, said the school was "deeply saddened" by the shooting and was cooperating with the investigation.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
“It’s kinda crazy what this parish has gone through,” said Father Jorge Moncada, who didn’t know about Resurrection’s history until he arrived last year on his first assignment as a priest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Father Clement Thibault, Babs’s priest-mentor since childhood, is defrocked for publicly supporting the strikers after the church hierarchy forbade him from taking sides; the priest then begins a separate campaign to expose ecclesiastical misbehavior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Cricket's son, Father Frankie Mulgrew, said the late comedian "saw the joy in everything, right up until his death".
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
I only thought about Father and me traveling.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
They were arguing instead that mothers and children deserve more care and support — from fathers, from employers, from society-at-large.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
"We are devastated by the deprivation of liberty being endured in Togo by our partners, our fathers, our sons and our brothers," they said.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The pain and anguish it is causing behind closed doors is clear from interviews AFP conducted across the country, with even deeply religious fathers questioning the ruling.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Mothers and fathers nationwide are alarmed by dwindling recess time and calling upon school administrators to restore it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
The sons of Marines all come to a day when their fathers moved away from their embrace.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
It comes more than a decade after his marriage to Roh - the daughter of a former president - fell apart following the revelation he had fathered a child with another woman.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Some males fathered more calves than others, but the difference was not as extreme as researchers had expected.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
Brockman said when he spoke with Zilis after learning Musk had fathered her twins, "she said that it was via IVF and that it was entirely platonic with Elon."
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
Fritz, who also fathered a son at 19, became the only American man of his generation to reach a Grand Slam final at the 2024 U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2026
“I could not have fathered an imperfect child,” Mr. Derby declared.
From "Copper Sun" by Sharon M. Draper
In 2015 he admitted to fathering a child with his lover.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
There’s little airtight data on the fathering brain; cohorts are small; some results await replication while others confound analysis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Even decades later, the legacy of whaling continues to shape whale populations, affecting not only how many whales exist today but also which males succeed in fathering calves.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2026
“If I was in a situation where I was fathering a child who was near a potential lifestyle like mine, I would be suggesting and making recommendations different to ones I received.”
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2024
And Leon had not done so badly either, with his four marriages and dedicated fathering.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
