Standard Lemma guide

patrilineal

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /patɹɪˈlɪnɪəl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P AE2 T R IH0 L IH1 N IY0 AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Pertaining to descent through male lines.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: anthropology, human-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

based on or tracing descent through the male line

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a patrilineal society

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: patrilinear

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

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

Across languages

Translations

1 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Spanish: patrilineal — Translations