fatherless
Americanadjective
-
not having a living father.
a fatherless boy.
-
not having a known or legally responsible father.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of fatherless
before 1000; Middle English faderles, Old English fæderlēas. See father, -less
Explanation
Fatherless means without a father. When Claudius killed Hamlet's father, Hamlet became fatherless and obsessed with vengeance. Use the adjective fatherless to describe your orphaned kitten, who has no parents and is therefore both motherless and fatherless. Usually, a fatherless person has lost his or her father to death, although you could also describe a girl raised only by her mother as a fatherless child. The root of fatherless is the similar Old English word fæderleas.
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.
Seventy percent of teen pregnancies are to girls from fatherless homes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
Through his Pearl Fund, he is making a difference in the lives of orphaned, fatherless and poverty-stricken young people.
From BBC • Jul. 30, 2025
That’s why he’d spent years mentoring a fatherless young man to help him find his way in the world.
From Slate • Apr. 27, 2025
Boarding another boat could leave his wife a widow and his two children fatherless.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 18, 2023
In the way that the unfortunate sometimes dislike the co-unfortunate, Baby Kochamma disliked the twins, for she considered them doomed, fatherless waifs.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
