dad

/dæd/

dad noun: a father, a male parent. Also the alternative form of daad.

Noun (1)

dad (plural dads)

(informal) A father, a male parent.
- His dad was always there for him.
- A lot of the power for dads comes in the form of modeling. As much as dads can teach their sons directly and guide them in the world, they also provide an example of who their children can aim to be as they grow up, Singley said.
  “There are going to be the times when as the dad I’m going to screw...2025 June 15, Madeline Holcombe, “How to be a dad to sons today, according to experts”, in CNN
Synonyms:

ayr, ba, baba, da, dada, daddio, daddy, father, fatherling, governor
Used to address one's father; often capitalized.
- Happy Father's Day, dad!
Synonyms:

dada, daddy, pa, papa, pop, pappa, pater, paw
(slang) Used to address an older adult male.

Synonyms:

daddio, pop, pops

Verb (1)

dad (third-person singular simple present dads, present participle dadding, simple past and past participle dadded)

To be a father to; to parent.
To act like a dad.

Noun (2)

dad (plural dads)

A lump or piece.
A blow; act of striking something.

Verb (2)

dad (third-person singular simple present dads, present participle dadding, simple past and past participle dadded)

(transitive) To throw against something; to dash.

Noun (3) capitalized: DAD

DAD

(sound engineering) A designation on prerecorded compact discs indicating that the contents were recorded in digital but mixed in analog before being mastered to a digital medium.
(abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of diffuse alveolar damage.
(abbreviation, acronym, slang) Acronym of Dutch angel dragon.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: DAD

DAD

(abbreviation, initialism, slang) Initialism of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf (early title of Dragon Age: The Veilguard).
- Currently replaying in preparation for DAD, and the Josiemance is still as lovely as I remember.2024 May 24, RS_Serperior, Reddit
Synonyms:

DA4

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Dad

Dad

(informal) One’s father.
- Dad told me to go out and mow the lawn.
Synonyms:

Daddy, Father

Also used as

dad is also the alternative form of daad.

dad meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

dad in Hindi

informal: a father: बाप bāp, अब्बा abbā, पापा pāpā, बाबा bābā, बापू bāpū, पिताजी pitājī

dad in Tamil

informal: a father: தந்தை tantai, அப்பா appā

dad in Marathi

informal: a father: बाबा bābā, पप्पा pappā

dad in Urdu

informal: a father: بابا bābā, اَبّا abbā, باپ bāp, دادا dādā

More languagesFewer languages

dad in Bengali: বাবা baba
dad in Telugu: నాన్న nānna, అయ్యా ayyā
dad in Malayalam: അച്ഛന് acchaṉ, ബാപ്പ bāppa
dad in Kannada: ಅಪ್ಪ appa
dad in Odia: ବାପା
dad in Sanskrit: तात tāta
dad in Assamese: বাবা baba
dad in Tagalog: ama
dad in Arabic: أبي, بابا, بَابَا bābā
dad in Thai: พ่อ pɔ̂ɔ
dad in Vietnamese: bố, ba, cha, thầy

Examples of dad in a sentence

My dad used to burp to hide the fact he was farting.
Alan and Betty were necking in the back of a car when Betty's dad caught them.
Dad went into orbit when I told him that I'd crashed the car.

All 40 example sentences with dad

Synonyms of dad

21 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of dad

Forms of dad

Noun
plural	dads
alternative form	dod
alternative form	dodge
alternative form	dadge
alternative form (obsolete)	dadde
Verb
third-person singular present	dads
present participle	dadding
past participle	dadded
past	dadded

Plural of dad: dads

Origin of dad

From Early Modern English dadd, dadde (circa 1500), undoubtedly older, from unrecorded Middle English *dadde, of uncertain ultimate origin. Compare West Frisian deite (“dad, daddy”), Swabian Dede (“Godfather”). * Perhaps of Celtic origin, compare Welsh and Breton tad (from Proto-Brythonic *tad), Old Irish data; and possibly related to Russian дя́дя (djádja, “uncle”) and/or Russian де́душка (déduška, “grandfather”), all imitative. In Welsh, when subject to soft mutation (which occurs in vocative contexts, among others), tad becomes dad. * Perhaps imitative of a child's first uttered syllables da, da. * Possibly from a metathetic variation of a hypothetical Old English *ætta, *atta (“father”), from Proto-West Germanic *attō, from Proto-Germanic *attô ("father, forefather"; whence also North Frisian ate, aatj, taatje, tääte (“father; dad”), Middle High German tate (“father, dad”) (whence German Tate (“dad”), Bavarian tatte (“dad”), Cimbrian tatta (“dad”)), Icelandic táta (“dad”)), from Proto-Indo-European *átta (“father”), whence Sanskrit तत (tata, “father”).

From dade (“to strike heavily”), dade (“a heavy blow or thud”). Probably onomatopoeic.

Proprialisation of dad.

Words formed from dad

Phrases with dad

Words that rhyme with dad

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dad

What does dad mean?: Dad means a father, a male parent.
What is dad in Hindi?: Dad in Hindi is बाप (bāp), अब्बा (abbā), पापा (pāpā). See Dad meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is dad?: Dad can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dad?: Dad is pronounced /dæd/.
What is the plural of dad?: The plural of dad is dads.

Words near dad in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: dad (page history and authors); DAD (page history and authors); Dad (page history and authors); dad (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dad.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dad.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dad. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.