Paternalistic

adj

adj ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    the quality of being paternal, i.e. like a father, e.g. characterized by behaving in a benevolent yet intrusive manner towards underlings
  2. 2
    of, pertaining to, characteristic of or practicing paternalism

    "With a scanty supply of laws in Hellenic commonwealths or city states what an immense vista for an Aristotle, of that grand, complex, efficient machinery of law, turning out yearly thousands of laws and taboos for the paternalistic control and alleged welfare of the citizen!"

Adjective
  1. 1
    benevolent but sometimes intrusive wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
paternal

Example

More examples

"As far as I'm concerned, laws that require drivers to wear seatbelts are paternalistic."

Etymology

From paternal + -istic.

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