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fatherly

fatherly

19 2.4
Kind and protective like a father toward someone
  • adjective
  • /ˈfɑːðərli/
translation icon : paterno
  • My dad was quick to give me some fatherly advice
  • fatherly love

And second of all, the book like, that's some weird, I don't know, fatherly advice that someone would get.

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Examples

  • I suppose I ought to be giving you a few bits of fatherly advice by rights.

  • Want to hear some fatherly advice?

  • But having him as a a fatherly figure in my life, of course I wanted what he had.

  • I appreciate the fatherly thing, I really do.

  • And, by the way, thanks for the fatherly advice, guy.

  • So I figure, hey, you know, you might need some fatherly advice.

  • In the course of time, he became a fatherly friend to me.

    Academic text (2008)
  • In that case, I'd like some fatherly advice.

  • Men her father's age often showed a fatherly concern for her.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • He offered fatherly support during my difficult times.

Synonyms

paternal
vsfatherly
11 4.6

Having a father's kind and protective way

is about warm kind protection rather than formal or technical relation
grandfatherly
vsfatherly
2 3.4

Kind, gentle, and caring like a grandfather

is stronger and more protective rather than softly gentle and calm
fatherlike
vsfatherly
4.8

Kind and protective in the way a parent acts toward someone

is used to stress the caring and protective manner rather than mere resemblance

How Fatherly

paternal
11 4.6
fatherly
19 2.4
kind
534 1.0
uncaring
18 4.2

Surface Forms

fatherly positive
fatherlier comparative
fatherliest superlative

Morphology

fatherly = father (transparent) = father + ly

Regular adjectival formation from 'father' + '-ly' meaning 'resembling or pertaining to a father'.

Etymology

Fatherly comes from the everyday word father plus the ending -ly, which here means 'like' or 'in the way of'. So fatherly means 'like a father' — kind, protective, and responsible.