fatherhood

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the state, role, or experience of being a father

   Fatherhood changed how he divided his time between work and family.

2. 2
   noun

   the relation of a father to a child, whether biological, legal, or social

   The argument treats fatherhood as a relation that connects two people.

From father + -hood, the Old English suffix had meaning "state, condition, or rank." The word can name both the lived role of being a father and the abstract relation between father and child.

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