plural fathers
1
a(1)
: a male parent
(2)
: a man who has begotten a child
also
: a male animal who has sired an offspring
b
capitalized
(1)
(2)
: the first person of the Trinity (see Trinity sense 1)
2
: forefather
the founding fathers
3
a
: one related to another in a way suggesting that of father to child
b
: an old man
—used as a respectful form of address
4
often capitalized
: a pre-Scholastic (see scholastic sense 1a) Christian writer accepted by the church as an authoritative witness to its teaching and practice
called also church father
5
6
: a priest of the regular clergy
7
: one of the leading men (as of a city)
—usually used in plural
a council of the city fathers
fathered; fathering
ˈfä-t͟hə-riŋ 
ˈfät͟h-riŋ
1
a
: beget
b
: to be the founder, producer, or author of
fathered the improvement plan
c
: to accept responsibility for
2
a
: to fix the paternity or origin of
b
: to place responsibility for the origin or cause of
collected gossip and fathered it on responsible men—
J. A. Williamson
J. A. Williamson
: to care for or look after someone as a father might
Examples of father in a Sentence
Noun
He became a father when he was 30.
He's the father of three small children.
He has been like a father to me.
He was a father to me after my own father died.
Verb
He was praised for fathering a plan to improve the city's schools.
Paul Revere somehow found room in his small house for the large family he had fathered.
Recent Examples on the Web
Jason Quick, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025
That gave little away about who the father could be.
—Jack Beresford, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Oct. 2025
Evan Hughes, The Atlantic, 20 Oct. 2025
The novel opens as the teenage Karl Rossmann, whose parents shipped him off to America for fathering a child when he was seduced by the family’s thirty-five-year-old cook, arrives on a steamer in New York harbor and sees the Statue of Liberty holding not the emblematic torch but rather a sword.
—Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for father
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Noun
Simons, who was 25 years old at the time, was a new father.
—Jason Quick, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025
That gave little away about who the father could be.
—Jack Beresford, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Oct. 2025
Verb
Raskob was an auto executive who fathered 13 children and became a wildly ambitious entrepreneur.
—Evan Hughes, The Atlantic, 20 Oct. 2025
The novel opens as the teenage Karl Rossmann, whose parents shipped him off to America for fathering a child when he was seduced by the family’s thirty-five-year-old cook, arrives on a steamer in New York harbor and sees the Statue of Liberty holding not the emblematic torch but rather a sword.
—Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for father
Cite this Entry
“Father.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/father. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
father
1 of 2 noun
fa·ther
ˈfät͟h-ər
ˈfȧth-
1
a
: a male parent
b
capitalized
: god sense 1
c
capitalized
: the first person of the Christian Trinity
2
3
: a man who cares for another as a father might
4
: a man who invents or begins something
the father of modern science
5
: priest
—used especially as a title
father
2 of 2 verb
fathered; fathering
ˈfät͟h-(ə-)riŋ
ˈfȧt͟h-
1
a
b
: to be the founder, producer, or author of
2
: to treat or care for someone as a father
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