Father (honorific)
{{Short description|Title and honorific across languages}}
{{No sources|date=February 2024}}
Father has been used as both title and honorific in various languages, synonyms and historical contexts. It may sometimes denote a title of authority or of honour.
List of uses of "father" in various languages
=By culture and/or language=
- Ab (Semitic)
- Bwana ("our father"), from Swahili, meaning an important person or safari leader
- Abu in Kunya (Arabic), used as epithet for "father of X"
- Baba, mark of respect in:
- Indian honorific Hindu and Sikh
- Baba (honorific) in Persian language
- In Malaysia as an honorific of respect to address Chinese people born in the British Straits Settlements
- Batko, a Ukrainian honorific meaning "father"
- List of people considered father or mother of a field
- Founding father
- Father of the Nation/Father of the Country
- Pater Patriae
- Fathers of Confederation
- Founding fathers of the European Union
- Founding Fathers of the United States
- Pater familias (Latin), title for head of household in Ancient Rome
=Personifications=
- Father Time
- Father Christmas
- Ded Moroz ("Father Frost")
=By religion=
==Buddhism==
- Abbot (Buddhism) a title for a monk who holds the position of administrator of a Buddhist monastery or Buddhist temple
==Christianity==
- Patriarch (Greek, literally "father ruler") as a title for the primate of a Christian church
- Pope
- Church Fathers
- Abbot, an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery
- Father, as a honorific for a priest
- Aboona ("our father") in Syriac language
- Abuna ("our father") in Amharic and Tigrinya