PATERNITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does paternity mean? 

• PATERNITY (noun)
  The noun PATERNITY has 3 senses:

1. the state of being a father

2. the kinship relation between an offspring and the father

3. the act of initiating a new idea or theory or writing

  Familiarity information: PATERNITY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PATERNITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being a father

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

tests were conducted to determine paternity

Hypernyms ("paternity" is a kind of...):

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Derivation:

paternal (characteristic of a father)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The kinship relation between an offspring and the father

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Synonyms:

fatherhood; paternity

Hypernyms ("paternity" is a kind of...):

family relationship; kinship; relationship ((anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption)

Derivation:

paternal (related on the father's side)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of initiating a new idea or theory or writing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

authorship; paternity

Context example:

the authorship of the theory is disputed

Hypernyms ("paternity" is a kind of...):

creation; foundation; founding; initiation; innovation; instauration; institution; introduction; origination (the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new)

 Context examples 

I could not acknowledge the paternity to the world, but I gave him the best of educations, and since he came to manhood I have kept him near my person.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But unluckily the Varens, six months before, had given me this filette Adele, who, she affirmed, was my daughter; and perhaps she may be, though I see no proofs of such grim paternity written in her countenance: Pilot is more like me than she.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)