Meanings
- alternativenot comparableAlternative form of matrilineal.
Among peoples of unmixed Hellenic stock indisputable instances of mother-right are infrequent in historical times. […] So far as Athens is concerned, the evidence making for the survival, either in memory or in fact, of a primitive matrilinear basis of society rests on the statement of Varro […]
1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. Orestea. III: Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, pages 225-226
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivebased on or tracing descent through the female line
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
matrilinear. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matrilinear
“matrilinear.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matrilinear. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “matrilinear,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matrilinear.
Source: matrilinear on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.