Word.ws English Dictionary

father in law

father in law is the alternative spelling of father-in-law.

Meaning of father-in-law

Noun

father-in-law (plural fathers-in-law or (colloquial, nonstandard) father-in-laws)

  1. One's spouse's father.
  2. (obsolete) A stepfather.
    • `Yes,` replied Snawley. `The fact is, I am not their father, Mr Squeers. I'm only their father-in-law.`1839, Charles Dickens, chapter IV, in Nicholas Nickleby, →ISBN, page 41

Forms of father in law

pluralfathers in law

Questions about father in law

What is father in law the alternative spelling of?
Father in law is the alternative spelling of father-in-law.

Words near father in law in the dictionary

  1. Father Emir
  2. father figure
  3. father figures
  4. Father Frost
  5. father hunger
  6. father in law
  7. father lasher
  8. father lashers
  9. father longlegs
  10. Father of all Bombs
  11. father of chapel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: father in law (page history and authors); father-in-law (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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Cite this entry: “father in law.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/father_in_law. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.