From Middle English fader, from Old English fæder, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fadēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr.

• (RP) enPR: fä'thə(r), IPA: /ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)/
• (America) enPR: fä'thər, IPA: /ˈfɑðɚ/
• (Australia) enPR: fä'thə, IPA: /ˈfɐːðə/
• (IE, Canada, California, Western Pennsylvania, older New York City) enPR: fä'thər, IPA: /ˈfɒːðɚ/
• (Indian) enPR: fä'thə(r) IPA: /ˈfɑːd̪ə(r)/
• (Geordie, else obsolete) enPR: făthə(r) IPA: /ˈfæðə(ɹ)/
• (obsolete) enPR: fāthə(r), IPA: /ˈfeɪðəɹ/

father (plural fathers)

1. A (generally human) male who begets a child.

   My father was a strong influence on me.

   My friend Tony just became a father.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Proverbs 10:1 ↗:

     The Pꝛouerbes of Solomon: A wiſe ſonne maketh a glad father: but a fooliſh sonne is the heauineſſe of his mother.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.

   • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 7:

     "Ah, but how beautiful (my baby boy) is! And he is mine, mine for ever. Even if he hates me he will be mine. He cannot help it, he is made out of me; I am his father."

2. A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 1 Kings 2:10 ↗:

     So Dauid ſlept with his fathers, and was buried in the citie of Dauid.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Romans 4:16 ↗:

     Therefoꝛe it is of faith, that it might bee by grace; to the ende the pꝛomiſe might be ſure to all the ſeede, not to that onely which is of the Law, but to that alſo which is of the faith of Abꝛaham, who is the father of vs all,

3. A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

   Come, father; you can sit here.

4. A term of respectful address for a priest.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Bless you, good father friar!

5. A person who plays the role of a father in some way.

   My brother was a father to me after my parents got divorced.

   The child is father to the man.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Job 29:16 ↗:

     I was a father to the pooꝛe: and the cauſe which I knewe not, I ſearched out.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Genesis 45:8 ↗:

     So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and loꝛd of all his houſe, and a ruler thꝛoughout all the land of Egypt.

6. A pioneering figure in a particular field.

   Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics.

7. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
   • 1991, The Nairobi Law Monthly:

     Soon after the announcement of this year's election results, Mereka said that "the father of all battles had just begun." His dispute with Muite goes back to March last year […]

   • 2002, Financial Management:

     "If UK GDP slows by 1 per cent, there is the mother and father of all recessions. It was exciting, but very bizarre, working in such an environment."

8. Something inanimate that begets.
9. (Christianity) A member of a church council.
10. (computing) The archived older version of a file that immediately precedes the current version, and was itself derived from the grandfather.
    • 2004, Ray Bradley, The Ultimate Computing Glossary for Advanced Level, page 31:

      Three generations of file are usually kept, being the grandfather, father and son files.

    • 2007, O. Ray Whittington, Patrick R. Delaney, Wiley CPA Exam Review 2008: Auditing and Attestation, page 556:

      The file from which the father was developed with the transaction files of the appropriate day is the grandfather.

• (parent) see Thesaurus:father
• (most significant thing) see mother and granddaddy

• (with regards to gender) mother
• (with regards to ancestry) son, daughter, child

• Father
• Jupiter
• paternal

see father/translations

father (fathers, present participle fathering; simple past and past participle fathered)

1. To be a father to; to sire.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene v], page 117 ↗, column 2:

     Well go too, we'll haue no Baſtards liue, / Eſpecially ſince Charles muſt Father it.

2. (figuratively) To give rise to.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii], page 387 ↗, column 1:

     Cowards father Cowards & Baſe things Syre Bace;

3. To act as a father; to support and nurture.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene ii], page 390 ↗, column 2:

     I good youth, / And rather Father thee, then Maſter thee:

4. To provide with a father.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i], page 116 ↗, column 2:

     Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex / Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?

5. To adopt as one's own.
   • 1713, Imitation of Horace, Jonathan Swift, Book I. Ep. VII:

     Kept company with men of wit / Who often fathered what he writ.

see father/translations

See father.

1. (Christianity) God, the father of Creation.
2. (Christianity) God the Father, who eternally begets the Son.
3. One's father.

   I will only do what Father asks.

4. (Wicca) One of the triune gods of the Horned God in Wicca, representing a man, younger than the elderly Sage and older than the boyish Master.
   • 2002, A. J. Drew, Wicca for Couples: Making Magick Together, page 89 ↗

     ...and our Lord as Master, Father, and Sage.

• (antonym(s) of “Wicca”): Mother

• French: Père
• German: Vater
• Portuguese: Pai
• Russian: отец
• Spanish: Padre

father (plural fathers)

1. (Christianity) A title given to priests.

   Father Thomas was a good priest.

2. (Christianity) One of the chief ecclesiastical authorities of the first centuries after Christ.

   the Latin, Greek, or apostolic Fathers

3. A title given to the personification of a force of nature or abstract concept, such as Father Time or Father Frost.
4. (historical) A senator of Ancient Rome.

• French: Père
• German: Vater, Pater
• Italian: padre
• Portuguese: padre
• Russian: святой отец
• Spanish: padre