# dad

> English word · Noun · IPA /dæd/ · frequency rank #1,182

## Definitions
1. A father, a male parent.
2. Used to address one's father; often capitalized.
3. Used to address an older adult male.

## Etymology
From Early Modern English dadd, dadde (circa 1500), undoubtedly older, from unrecorded Middle English *dadde, of uncertain ultimate origin. Compare West Frisian deite (“dad, daddy”), Swabian Dede (“Godfather”).
* Perhaps of Celtic origin, compare Welsh and Breton tad (from Proto-Brythonic *tad), Old Irish data; and possibly related to Russian дя́дя (djádja, “uncle”) and/or Russian де́душка (déduška, “grandfather”), all imitative. In Welsh, when subject to soft mutation (which occurs in vocative contexts, among others), tad becomes dad.
* Perhaps imitative of a child's first uttered syllables da, da.
* Possibly from a metathetic variation of a hypothetical Old English *ætta, *atta (“father”), from Proto-West Germanic *attō, from Proto-Germanic *attô ("father, forefather"; whence also North Frisian ate, aatj, taatje, tääte (“father; dad”), Middle High German tate (“father, dad”) (whence German Tate (“dad”), Bavarian tatte (“dad”), Cimbrian tatta (“dad”)), Icelandic táta (“dad”)), from Proto-Indo-European *átta (“father”), whence Sanskrit तत (tata, “father”).

## Easily confused with
- **do** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-do)
- **Dr** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dr)
- **de** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-de)
- **DC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dc)
- **di** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-di)
- **DJ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dj)
- **DM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dm)
- **DB** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-db)
- **DS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-ds)
- **DD** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dd)
- **DL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dl)
- **DT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dt)
- **DP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dp)
- **dw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dw)
- **Dx** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dx)
- **DG** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dg)
- **DV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dv)
- **dy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dy)
- **DQ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-dq)
- **did** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dad-vs-did)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/dad