father

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. sire, forefather; founder, patriarch; priest, pastor; the Father, God. See ancestry, clergy, deity.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [A male parent]

Syn. Sire, paterfamilias, progenitor, procreator, forebear, forefather, begetter, ancestor, male head of the household, dad*, daddy*, papa*, pa*, the old man*, the governor*, pappy*, pater*, pop*, pops*.

2. [An originator]

Syn. founder, inventor, sponsor, promoter, publisher, introducer, supporter, encourager, promulgator, author, creator; see also author 1 .

3. [A civic or tribal elder]

Syn. patriarch, city father, dean, Solon; see administrator , elder 2 .

4. [A priest, especially a Roman Catholic or Anglican priest]

Syn. pastor, ecclesiastic, parson, padre*; see priest .

5. [An important early Christian]

Syn. hermit, commentator, Gregory, prophet, martyr, patriarch, Doctor of the Church, apostolic father, anti-Nicene father.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

1. male parent dad, daddy, papa, pappy, pop, pa, *old man, parent, sire, head of the household, protector, forefather, progenitor, forebear. ''A man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.''—Franklin Clark. ''He who brings up, not he who begets, is the father.''—Bible. ''One ... is more than a hundred schoolmasters.''—George Herbert.

2. founder inventor, originator, author, architect, creator, sire, initiator, maker, producer.

II

v.

sire, produce, beget, generate, procreate, engender, conceive, originate, create, invent, found.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun 1. A male parent: sire. Informal: dad, daddy, pa, papa, pappy2, pop2. Slang: old man. See KIN. 2. A person from whom one is descended: ancestor, antecedent, ascendant, forebear, forefather, foremother, mother, parent, progenitor. Archaic: predecessor. See KIN, PRECEDE. 3. One that creates, founds, or originates: architect, author, creator, entrepreneur, founder2, inventor, maker, originator, parent, patriarch. See START. 4. A first form from which varieties arise or imitations are made: archetype, master, original, protoplast, prototype. See START. II verb 1. To be the biological father of: beget, breed, get, procreate, sire. See KIN. 2. To cause to come into existence: beget, breed, create, engender, hatch, make, originate, parent, procreate, produce, sire, spawn. Idiom: give birth (or rise) to. See MAKE.