Father
male parent
A father, dad, or daddy, is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his child or children, fathers may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with their child or children that carries with it certain rights and obligations.
A biological father is the male genetic contributor to the creation of the child, through sexual intercourse or sperm donation. A biological father may have legal obligations to a child not raised by him, such as an obligation of monetary support. A putative father is a man whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been established.
A stepfather is a non-biological male parent married to a child's parent and forms a family unit but generally does not have the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child. An adoptive father is a man who has become the child's parent through the legal process of adoption.
The adjective "paternal" refers to a father and comparatively to "maternal" for a mother. The verb "to father" means to procreate or to sire a child from which also derives the noun "fathering". Biological fathers determine the sex of their child through a sperm cell which either contains an X chromosome (female), or Y chromosome (male).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Father” is male parent. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Father, male and parent, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “male parent” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7565. The Library of Congress control number is sh85047451. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Father” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.