father.
A male parent, especially of a human; a male who parents a child (which he has sired, adopted, fostered, etc.).
Meaning & usage
A male parent, especially of a human; a male who parents a child (which he has sired, adopted, fostered, etc.).
My father was a strong influence on me.
My friend Tony just became a father.
A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.
A term of respectful address for an elderly man.
Come, father; you can sit here.
A term of respectful address for a priest.
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.
A pioneering figure in a particular field.
Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics.
Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
Something inanimate that begets.
A member of a church council.
The archived older version of a file that immediately precedes the current version, and was itself derived from the grandfather.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-? Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr Proto-Germanic *fadēr Proto-West Germanic *fader Old English fæder Middle English fader English father Inherited from Middle English fader, from Old English fæder, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fadēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr, possibly from *peh₂- + *-tḗr. Doublet of ayr, faeder, athair, padre, pater, and père.
To be a father to; to sire.
To give rise to.
To act as a father; to support and nurture.
To provide with a father.
To adopt as one's own.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-? Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr Proto-Germanic *fadēr Proto-West Germanic *fader Old English fæder Middle English fader English father Inherited from Middle English fader, from Old English fæder, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fadēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr, possibly from *peh₂- + *-tḗr. Doublet of ayr, faeder, athair, padre, pater, and père.
Try it on your idea.
father has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.