Fatherless means having no father alive or present. A fatherless child, grew up fatherless, fatherless households.
It covers both death and absence, which is why it is used carefully now: the word once carried an accusation about the mother that had nothing to do with the child. It is among the oldest compounds in English.
1adjectivefatherlessHaving no father alive or present.
“The war left thousands of children fatherless.”
fatherless is a state.
Old English faederleas is father plus -less, with cognates across the Germanic languages.
Proto-Germanic
*fadērlausaz
Old English
fæderlēas
Middle English
faderles
English, today
fatherless
From Middle English faderles, federles, from Old English fæderlēas, from Proto-Germanic fadērlausaz, equivalent to father + less. Cognate with German vaterlos.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA