Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
One of a number of male Christian writers from Antiquity whose doctrinal work is considered authoritative by the later church.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: Christianity
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
(Christianity) any of about 70 theologians in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writing established and confirmed official church doctrine; in the Roman Catholic Church some were later declared saints and became Doctor of the Church; the best known Latin Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome; those who wrote in Greek include Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Father of the Church, Father
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: theologian, theologist, theologizer, theologiser
Narrower terms: Ambrose, Saint Ambrose, St. Ambrose, Athanasius, Saint Athanasius, St. Athanasius, Athanasius the Great, Augustine, Saint Augustine, St. Augustine, Augustine of Hippo, Basil, St. Basil, Basil of Caesarea, Basil the Great, St. Basil the Great, Gregory, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Gregory of Nazianzen, Irenaeus, Saint Irenaeus, St. Irenaeus, Jerome, Saint Jerome, St. Jerome, Hieronymus, Eusebius Hieronymus, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, John Chrysostom, St. John Chrysostom
History
Calque of Latin Pater Ecclēsiae.
Across languages
24 source translations are retained for this English entry.
