matriarchate

American  

[mey-tree-ahr-kit, -keyt] / ˈmeɪ triˌɑr kɪt, -keɪt /

noun

1. a matriarchal system or community.

2. a social order formerly believed to have preceded patriarchal tribal society in the early period of human communal life, embodying rule by the mothers, or by all adult women.

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matriarchate British  

/ ˈmeɪtrɪˌɑːkɪt, -keɪt /

noun

1. rare a family or people under female domination or government

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Etymology

Origin of matriarchate

First recorded in 1880–85; matriarch + -ate ³

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

matriarchate

Their language and customs prove an earlier and higher culture, in which we may trace the matriarchate.

From The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Let no one imagine that the so-called "matriarchate" of early ages was an ideal condition of society.

From The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV by Ida Husted Harper

Among the Syntengs, the people who have most closely preserved the customs of the matriarchate, the husband does not even go to live with his wife, he only visits her in her mother’s home.

From The Position of Woman in Primitive Society A Study of the Matriarchy by C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine) Hartley

Among the Lycians, whose affinity to the Greeks was so pronounced, a matriarchate prevailed down to the time of Herodotus.

From The Position of Woman in Primitive Society A Study of the Matriarchy by C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine) Hartley

I said the peoples with whom we are now being brought as a nation into vital relationship may be still in the matriarchate.

From The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV by Ida Husted Harper