paternal

Questions about paternal

What does paternal mean?

paternal means "belonging to or inherited from one's father". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in paternal?

paternal has 3 syllables: pa-ter-nal. The stress falls on "ter". In IPA it is /pəˈtɝnəl/.

What is another word for paternal?

Close synonyms include parental, maternal, agnate, agnatic. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of paternal?

The recorded antonyms are maternal.

Is paternal a common word?

paternal is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with paternal?

5 words rhyme with paternal. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.