Word.ws English Dictionary

matriline

matriline noun: a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant (of either sex) in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers.

Noun

matriline (plural matrilines)

  1. A line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant (of either sex) in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers.
    Antonyms:
    patriline

Synonyms of matriline

Antonyms

Forms of matriline

pluralmatrilines

Origin of matriline

Borrowed from Latin mater (“mother”) + linea (“line”). By surface analysis, matri- + line.

Words formed from matriline

Questions about matriline

What does matriline mean?
Matriline means a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant (of either sex) in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers.
What part of speech is matriline?
Matriline is a noun.
What is the plural of matriline?
The plural of matriline is matrilines.

Words near matriline in the dictionary

  1. matrilateral
  2. matrilaterally
  3. matrilect
  4. matrilects
  5. matrilin
  6. matriline
  7. matrilineage
  8. matrilineages
  9. matrilineal
  10. matrilineal descent
  11. matrilineal line

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: matriline (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “matriline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/matriline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.