matrilocal
UK/ˌmæ.tɹɪˈləʊ.kəl//ˌmæ.tɹɪˈloʊ.kəl/
matrilocal adjective: living with the family of the wife; uxorilocal.
Adjective
matrilocal (not comparable)
- Living with the family of the wife; uxorilocal.
- In which newly married couples live with the wife's family.
- In barring the way, he is enacting a ritual which demands that the new way of patrilocal marriage pay its respect to the more ancient way of matrilocal marriage.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 191
Synonyms of matrilocal
Antonyms
Origin of matrilocal
From matri- + local.
Words formed from matrilocal
Questions about matrilocal
- What does matrilocal mean?
- Matrilocal means living with the family of the wife; uxorilocal.
- What part of speech is matrilocal?
- Matrilocal is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce matrilocal?
- Matrilocal is pronounced /ˌmæ.tɹɪˈləʊ.kəl/ (UK).
Words near matrilocal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: matrilocal (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-matrilocal.ogg.
Cite this entry: “matrilocal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/matrilocal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.