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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

matriarch.

A female leader of a family, a tribe or an ethnic or religious group.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmeɪtɹɪˌɑːk/UK/ˈmeɪtɹiɑɹk/US
  1. A female leader of a family, a tribe or an ethnic or religious group.

  2. A female leader of a family, a tribe or an ethnic or religious group. The dominant female in a family group of elephants.

  3. A female leader of a family, a tribe or an ethnic or religious group. A strong and domineering older woman; a battle axe.

    Northern-England
  4. A female founder of a political or religious movement, an organization or an enterprise.

Where this word comes from

Of Latin origin, via or reinforced by Old French matriarche, from Latin māter (“mother”) + -archa, -arches, from Ancient Greek -άρχης (-árkhēs), from ἀρχός (arkhós, “chief”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”). By surface analysis, matri- + -arch.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.