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filial love

filial love

1 4.4
A child's deep love for their parents
  • noun
  • /ˈfɪliəl lʌv/
translation icon : amor filial
  • She felt a surge of filial love when she surprised her father with a birthday party.

Examples

  • Romantic love, platonic love, filial love?

    Fiction book (1996)
  • All that the Son has and is, he receives only from the Father, and the Son returns himself without remainder to the Father in a perpetual act of filial love and trust.

    Blog text (25)
  • The boy showed deep filial love by caring for his sick mother during her recovery.

  • Their filial love helped them overcome the challenges they faced as a family.

Synonyms

love
vsfilial love
1.0

A strong feeling of care and liking for someone or something

is this feeling specifically from a child toward parents
attachment
vsfilial love
89 3.3

A strong feeling of liking and caring for someone or something

is the child to parent affectionate feeling rather than a general bond
fondness
vsfilial love
38 2.8

A strong warm liking for a person or thing

is stronger child to parent affection rather than mild liking
lovingness
vsfilial love
1 3.6

Warm care and kindness that a person shows to others

is that caring specifically felt by a child for their parents
devotedness
vsfilial love
7.2

A strong, loving loyalty and care for someone or something

is deep child to parent affection rather than constant ongoing care

Antonyms

394 1.9

A very strong dislike that can make a person want to hurt others

71 4.6

Lack of interest or concern about something

How Affectionate

devotion
62 3.2
filial love
1 4.4
fondness
38 2.8
affection
317 1.4
indifference
71 4.6

Surface Forms

filial love singular
filial loves plural

Morphology

filial + love

The noun phrase is compositionally built: 'filial' specifies the family/child-to-parent relation and combines directly with 'love' to mean a child's affection for their parent(s). This relation is morphologically and conceptually transparent (and mirrored in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will predict the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase filial love uses filial, an old word for a 'son' or 'daughter', and love, so it gives the image of a child caring for a parent. That's why it means 'the affection a child feels toward their parents'.