paternalistic
C2CEFR level
68/100Rarity: rare
TechnicalRegister
Medicine adjective
Making decisions for patients on their behalf, based on the assumption that the clinician knows what is best for them.
Modern consultation training discourages a paternalistic style in favour of shared decision-making.
Business adjective
Treating subordinates in a fatherly way, providing for them while limiting their autonomy.
The firm's paternalistic culture offered cradle-to-grave security but discouraged dissent.
Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.
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