Word.ws English Dictionary

daddy issues

/ˈdædi ˌɪʃ(j)uz/

daddy issues noun: a complex, especially in a girl or woman, originating from an unhealthy relationship with one's father, causing one to behave erratically in romantic relationships.

Noun

daddy issues pl (plural only)

  1. (informal, plural, plural-only) A complex, especially in a girl or woman, originating from an unhealthy relationship with one's father, causing one to behave erratically in romantic relationships.
    • Near-synonym: father complex
    • I might have to break up with Nora: she has serious daddy issues that she needs to sort out before dating anyone again.

Questions about daddy issues

What does daddy issues mean?
Daddy issues means a complex, especially in a girl or woman, originating from an unhealthy relationship with one's father, causing one to behave erratically in romantic relationships.
What part of speech is daddy issues?
Daddy issues is a noun.
How do you pronounce daddy issues?
Daddy issues is pronounced /ˈdædi ˌɪʃ(j)uz/ (US).

Words near daddy issues in the dictionary

  1. daddy diaper party
  2. daddy dom
  3. daddy doms
  4. daddy hundred
  5. daddy hundreds
  6. daddy issues
  7. daddy long-leg spider
  8. daddy long-legs
  9. daddy long-legs spider
  10. daddy long-legs spiders
  11. daddy longlegs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: daddy issues (page history and authors). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-daddy issues.wav.

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