paternity
part of speech
noun (paternity, uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) (formal, law) Being the father of a child. tree →
2) (adult life) «Paternity leave» is time off work that a father gets when his baby is born. tree →
3) (formal) Where an idea or work came from; who started it. tree →
sense in the lessons
In adult life dads take paternity leave to look after a new baby; in law a «paternity test» shows who a child's father is, sometimes in custody cases. In stories it may be a secret about who someone's father is. Phrases: «paternity leave», «paternity test», «paternity pay».
examples
- Dad took two weeks of paternity leave when my sister was born. tree →
- A paternity test can show who a baby's father is. tree →
- His workplace gives good paternity pay. tree →
- The court looked at the question of paternity. tree →
- Mum had maternity leave and Dad had paternity leave. tree →
- In the story, the boy's paternity was a mystery. tree →
note
Uncountable. Formal; in everyday speech people say «being a dad». Related: paternal (fatherly, or on the father's side: «paternal grandmother»). Opposite on the mother's side: maternity, maternal.
In the corpora
- Parents get time off work, called maternity and paternity leave, to look after a new baby.
- Paternity leave is time off work for a new father; in Britain it is usually two weeks.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «paternity» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.