paterfamilias
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.
Burden internalized this pattern, of foregrounding the importance of the paterfamilias at the expense of real intimacy, of keeping up appearances despite the private pain.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 31, 2026
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
They’re going to take place in the family circle, which is evident when the paterfamilias starts listing the order of his favorite sons while they’re chowing down at the breakfast table.
From New York Times • Dec. 21, 2023
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
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
Vocabulary lists containing paterfamilias
Ancient Rome - Middle School and High School
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The Roman Republic, Lessons 3–4
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