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paternity suit

noun

Simple meaning

A lawsuit filed to determine the father of a child born out of wedlock.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

puhturnihteesoot

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pəˈtɝnɪtisut

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A lawsuit filed to determine the father of a child born out of wedlock (and to provide for the support of the child once paternity is determined)

  2. A lawsuit to identify a child's father and establish child support.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: A lawsuit filed to determine the father of a child born out of wedlock (and to provide for the support of the child once paternity is determined)

Used this way, paternity suit is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing
  • Family/home

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.