Filial

//ˈfi.li.əl// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Pertaining to or befitting a son or daughter. not-comparable

    "The filial duty Ellesmere had paid to a father, who had no other claim to it than that he was his father, was now consoling to him [D'Alonville]; […]"

  2. 2
    Respectful of the duties and attitudes of sons or daughters toward their parents. comparable

    "If the admonition [to the parent] does not take effect, the son will be more reverential and more filial; […]"

  3. 3
    Of a generation or generations descending from a specific previous one.

    "This, following Bateson, we may call the parental generation or P generation. Subsequent generations are called filial generations (abbreviated F) and their numerical order is indicated by a subscript, as first filial (F₁), second filial (F₂), etc."

Adjective
  1. 1
    relating to or characteristic of or befitting an offspring wordnet
  2. 2
    designating the generation or the sequence of generations following the parental generation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
daughterlysonlyadoringaffectionateconjugaldaughterlike

Example

More examples

"When one would be filial, one's parents are gone."

Etymology

From Middle English filial, from Latin fīliālis, from filius (“son”) / filia (“daughter”) + -al.

Related phrases

filial dutyfilial generationfilial piety

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.