Matrilineal

//ˌmeɪtɹɪˈlɪnɪəl// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Tracing descent only through female ancestors. not-comparable

    "Kerala traditionally has matrilineal inheritance."

Adjective
  1. 1
    based on or tracing descent through the female line wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
affiliatedagnateakinalliedcognatecollateral

Example

More examples

"Judaism changed from patrilineal to matrilineal on account of widespread rape of Jewish women."

Etymology

From matri- + lineal. Coined by British government anthropologist Northcote Whitridge Thomas in 1904 along with patrilineal.

Related phrases

matrilineal descentmatrilineal linematrilineal lineage

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.