Meanings
- not comparableanthropologyTracing descent only through female ancestors.
Kerala traditionally has matrilineal inheritance.
2 more examples
Enkidu expresses the values of nature, matrilineal conservatism, and the populism of the assembly, the assembly of village elders from the days before military dictatorship.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 191This female hyena also gets erections and is larger, more aggressive than the male hyenas and lives in matrilineal clans of up to 80 individuals governed by an alpha female matriarch.
2022 June 12, Katie Hunt, “How zoology got female animals all wrong”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Aug 2022
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivebased on or tracing descent through the female line
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*méh₂tēr
- Proto-Italic*mātēr
- Latinmāter
- Englishmatri-
- Englishlineal
- Englishmatrilineal
From matri- + lineal. Coined by British government anthropologist Northcote Whitridge Thomas in 1904 along with patrilineal.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian по майчина линия
- по майчина линия (po majčina linija)Tracing descent only through female ancestors
Finnish matrilineaarinen
- matrilineaarinenTracing descent only through female ancestors
French matrilinéaire
- matrilinéaireTracing descent only through female ancestors
Italian matrilineare
- matrilineareTracing descent only through female ancestors
Malay matrilineal
- matrilinealTracing descent only through female ancestors
Spanish matrilineal
- matrilinealTracing descent only through female ancestors
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
matrilineal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matrilineal
“matrilineal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matrilineal. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “matrilineal,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matrilineal.
Source: matrilineal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.