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paterfamilias

[pey-ter-fuh-mil-ee-uhs, pah-, pat-er-] / ˌpeɪ tər fəˈmɪl i əs, ˌpɑ-, ˌpæt ər- /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Ms. Cheever began to understand that his stories came at least partly from the tension between his private feelings of shame and the effort to maintain his respectability as a literary grandee and paterfamilias.

From The Wall Street Journal Oct. 17, 2025

He walked on stage, now the proud paterfamilias with greying hair and a broad welcoming smile on his face as he surveyed the nearly full house.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 6, 2025

There were meant to be so many rebels that they could be split into 'five families', a label that even one paterfamilias privately lamented "makes us look ridiculous".

From BBC Dec. 13, 2023

George also leaned into his role as Britain’s paterfamilias.

From National Geographic Jul. 3, 2023

And nor did I mistake for long Pierrot, much shriveled and with a shining pate I wanted to put my hand on, but still twinkly as ever and very much the paterfamilias.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

It is the so-called decent people, the noble paterfamiliases, the irreproachable husbands, the loving brothers.

From Yama: the pit by Bernard Guilbert Guerney

These dreams of bliss, put into facile verse yet adorned with a certain poetic gravity, caused some anxiety among the paterfamiliases.

From The Fourth Estate, vol. 2 by Armando Palacio Vald?s

Jhabvala’s early fiction sauntered into middle-class Hindu households and wryly took the measure of their dramatic capacity: shy newlyweds and demanding mothers-in-law, pompous patresfamilias, feckless sons, and snooping aunties.

From The New Yorker Dec. 31, 2018

Only Bryce Gill as the good brother and, at times, Philip Goodwin as various patresfamilias rise above the blustery racket that engulfs the rest of the seven-member cast.

From New York Times Mar. 27, 2011

And what do our patresfamilias, the officials, the wives and daughters, do in such cases?

From The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Isn't it rather the fault of the audience, of your respectable residents, your patresfamilias?

From The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky




Vocabulary lists containing paterfamilias


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