Patriarchate
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A patriarchal system or community.
"The rise of the patriarchate saw the overpowering of the female goddess by the male god. The moon-god gave place to the sun-god. The tables were turned with a vengeance. Not only was the male granted a share in the phenomenon of generation; he was given the main share."
- 2 a form of social organization in which a male is the family head and title is traced through the male line wordnet
- 3 The term of office of a Christian patriarch.
"The patriarchate of Pope John Paul II as Patriarch of the West was more than 25 years."
- 4 the jurisdiction of a patriarch wordnet
- 5 The office or ecclesial jurisdiction of such a patriarch.
"The Patriarchate of Constantinople has primacy over the whole of the Orthodox world."
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- 6 The office-space occupied by a patriarch and his staff.
"The Latin patriarchate in Jerusalem is, by modern standards, a very cramped space."
Example
More examples"The Patriarchate in Istanbul is considered the heart of the Orthodox world and dates back to the Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when the Muslim Ottomans conquered the city in 1453."
Etymology
From Middle French patriarcat, from Old French patriarcat, from Medieval Latin patriarchatus, from Ancient Greek πατριάρχης (patriárkhēs, “patriarch”). By surface analysis, patriarch + -ate (forms nouns denoting rank or office, the concrete charge of it, a body of people involved with it).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.