Definition of patriarchy
patriarchies
1 : social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power
2 : a society or institution organized according to the principles or practices of patriarchy For 20 years the country was ruled as a patriarchy.
From the M-W Editors
Examples of patriarchy in a Sentence
For 20 years, the country was ruled as a patriarchy.
a region in which patriarchy is practiced
Recent Examples of patriarchy from the Web
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A woman is set free to help a child transition - and to dismantle the patriarchy!
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When a controlling Canadian neurosurgeon was charged with murdering his wife, a brilliant family doctor, Canada had to stare in the violent face of the patriarchy one more time.
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Or maybe smash the patriarchy and build a better publishing industry, but that might take a little more time.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'patriarchy'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
With its root -arch, meaning "ruler, leader", a patriarch is a man who dominates something, even if it's just a family. In Christianity, the term is used for a few leading figures who appear early in the Old Testament, including Methuselah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; in the Eastern Orthodox church, a patriarch is usually the equivalent of a bishop. Outside of the field of anthropology, patriarchy didn't start to be used much until the 1970s, when the women's movement gained a huge following. Many feminists have claimed that all Western societies are patriarchal—that is, that they systematically enable men to dominate women. But there's plenty of disagreement about how this is done, and the word isn't discussed as often as it used to be.
1632
First Known Use of patriarchy
1632
Other Anthropology Terms
PATRIARCHY Defined for English Language Learners
patriarchy
playDefinition of patriarchy for English Language Learners
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: a family, group, or government controlled by a man or a group of men
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: a social system in which family members are related to each other through their fathers
Learn More about patriarchy
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See words that rhyme with patriarchy Spanish Central: Translation of patriarchy Nglish: Translation of patriarchy for Spanish speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about patriarchy
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