'Patriarchal' definitions:
Definition of 'patriarchal'
From: WordNet
adjective
Characteristic of a form of social organization in which the male is the family head and title is traced through the male line [ant: matriarchal]
adjective
Relating to or characteristic of a man who is older or higher in rank
Definition of 'Patriarchal'
From: GCIDE
- Patriarchal \Pa`tri*ar"chal\, a. [Cf. F. patriarcal.]
- 1. Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs; as, patriarchal authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal see; a patriarchal church. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable. [1913 Webster]
- About whose patriarchal knee Late the little children clung. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
- 3. (Ethnol.) Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations. [1913 Webster]
- Patriarchal cross (Her.), a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller. See Illust. (2) of Cross.
- Patriarchal dispensation, the divine dispensation under which the patriarchs lived before the law given by Moses. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'patriarchal'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- aboriginal,
- absolute,
- advanced,
- advanced in life,
- advanced in years,
- aged,
- along in years,
- ancestorial,
- ancestral,
- ancient,
- antepatriarchal,
- aristocratic,
- atavistic,
- authoritarian,
- autochthonous,
- autocratic,
- autonomous,
- bureaucratic,
- civic,
- civil,
- constitutional,
- democratic,
- despotic,
- dictatorial,
- elderly,
- fascist,
- fatherlike,
- fatherly,
- federal,
- federalist,
- federalistic,
- governmental,
- grandfatherly,
- grandmotherly,
- grandparental,
- gray,
- gray with age,
- gray-haired,
- gray-headed,
- grown old,
- gubernatorial,
- heteronomous,
- hoar,
- hoary,
- humanoid,
- maternal,
- matriarchal,
- matriarchic,
- monarchal,
- monarchial,
- monarchic,
- monocratic,
- mother,
- motherlike,
- motherly,
- official,
- old,
- old as Methuselah,
- oligarchal,
- oligarchic,
- parent,
- parental,
- parliamentarian,
- parliamentary,
- paternal,
- patriarchic,
- pluralistic,
- political,
- preadamite,
- preglacial,
- prehistoric,
- prehuman,
- prime,
- primeval,
- primitive,
- primogenial,
- primoprimitive,
- primordial,
- pristine,
- protohistoric,
- protohuman,
- republican,
- revered,
- reverend,
- reverential,
- self-governing,
- senectuous,
- theocratic,
- totalitarian,
- venerable,
- white,
- white with age,
- white-bearded,
- white-crowned,
- white-haired,
- wrinkled,
- wrinkly,
- years old