PATERNAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does paternal mean? 

• PATERNAL (adjective)
  The adjective PATERNAL has 4 senses:

1. belonging to or inherited from one's father

2. characteristic of a father

3. relating to or characteristic of or befitting a parent

4. related on the father's side

  Familiarity information: PATERNAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PATERNAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Belonging to or inherited from one's father

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

paternal traits

Pertainym:

father (a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characteristic of a father

Similar:

fatherlike; fatherly (like or befitting a father or fatherhood; kind and protective)

paternalistic (benevolent but sometimes intrusive)

Also:

patriarchal (characteristic of a form of social organization in which the male is the family head and title is traced through the male line)

Attribute:

fatherliness; paternal quality (the benignity and protectiveness of or befitting a father)

Antonym:

maternal (characteristic of a mother)

Derivation:

paternity (the state of being a father)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Relating to or characteristic of or befitting a parent

Synonyms:

maternal; parental; paternal

Context example:

parental guidance

Sense 4

Meaning:

Related on the father's side

Synonyms:

agnate; agnatic; paternal

Context example:

a paternal aunt

Similar:

related (connected by kinship, common origin, or marriage)

Derivation:

paternity (the kinship relation between an offspring and the father)

 Context examples 

"Very well, my son, for a small boy!" and walked him off, with a paternal pat on the head.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Less information is available on the potential effects of paternal obesity on child development.

(Parental obesity linked to delays in child development, National Institutes of Health)

At first, while I supposed you satisfied that Colonel Campbell was the giver, I saw it only as paternal kindness, and thought it the most natural thing in the world.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Its molar chromosomes derive entirely from the paternal origin.

(Complete Hydatidiform Mole, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

A protein encoded by a gene that does not exhibit equal expression of both alleles due to repression or inactivation, resulting in the genetic non-equivalence of mammalian paternal and maternal genomes.

(Imprinted Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

One paternal kind precaution he had taken to ensure my having a companion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Grant, occurred just after they had been married long enough to begin to want an increase of income, and feel their distance from the paternal abode an inconvenience.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A gene that does not exhibit equal expression of both alleles due to repression or inactivation, resulting in the genetic non-equivalence of mammalian paternal and maternal genomes.

(Imprinting Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

Messner regarded her in a way that was almost paternal, what of the profundity of pity and patience with which he contrived to suffuse it.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

If he really sought to reconcile himself like a dutiful branch, he must be forgiven for having dismembered himself from the paternal tree.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)