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PlainSpell

father

fa·therUK /ˈfɑː.ðə/noun, verb

father is spelled F-A-T-H-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables (fa·ther). It appears 182 times per million words in written English, the 556th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, father means “A male parent, especially of a human; a male who parents a child (which he has sired, adopted, fostered, etc.)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of father is fathers.

How many letters and syllables are in father?

Letters6: F-A-T-H-E-R
Syllables2: fa·ther
In writing182 times per million words; the 556th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is father?

Father appears 182 times per million words in written English, the 556th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce father?

  • UK /ˈfɑː.ðə/
  • /ˈfa.ðə(ɹ)/
  • /ˈfa.ðɐ/

Father has 2 syllables, split fa·ther in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-father.wav, En-us-father.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Sravani_Jampana-father.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with father

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

farther vs father0 B

Sounds like: farther (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with father?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as father (/ɑðə/).

Spelled with the same letters in another order: hafter.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of father

  • fathers plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fathering participle, present
  • fathered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does father mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.

  3. 3

    A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

    Come, father; you can sit here.

  4. 4

    A term of respectful address for a priest.

  5. 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.

  6. 6

    A pioneering figure in a particular field.

    Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics.

  7. 7

    Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.

  8. 8

    Something inanimate that begets.

verb

  1. 1

    To be a father to; to sire.

  2. 2

    To give rise to.

  3. 3

    To act as a father; to support and nurture.

  4. 4

    To provide with a father.

  5. 5

    To adopt as one's own.

noun

as Father
  1. 1

    A title given to priests.

    Father Thomas was a good priest.

  2. 2

    One of the chief ecclesiastical authorities of the first centuries after Christ.

    the Latin, Greek, or apostolic Fathers

  3. 3

    A title given to the personification of a force of nature or abstract concept, such as Father Time or Father Frost.

  4. 4

    A senator of Ancient Rome.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Father in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpère, papa (male parent), paterner (to act as a father), Père (term of address for a Christian priest)
GermanVater, Vati, Papa, Vatter, vadda (male parent), Väterchen (term of address for an elderly man)
Portuguesepai (male parent), senhor (term of address for an elderly man), padre (term of address for a priest), gerar, procriar (to sire)
Spanishpadre (male parent), engendrar, ocasionar, producir (to give rise to)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does father come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after father