Phrase guide

father figure

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Mid-Atlantic, US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

One who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as equivalent to a father for another person or group of people.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a man who takes over all the functions of the real father

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: father surrogate

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: man, adult male

Narrower terms: foster-father, foster father, stepfather

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Danish: faderfigur — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Dutch: vaderfiguur — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Finnish: isähahmo — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • French: figure de père — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • French: figure paternelle — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • German: Vaterfigur — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • German: Übervater — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Latin: patraster — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Norwegian Bokmål: farsfigur — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: farsfigur — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Polish: autorytet — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Portuguese: figura paterna — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Spanish: figura paterna / paternal — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Swedish: fadersgestalt — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Swedish: fadersfigur — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father
  • Welsh: ffigwr tadol — one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father