matrilinear

1. 1.

   based on or tracing descent through the female line

   “matrilineal inheritance”

   Synonymsmatrilineal

   Similarlineal

Questions about matrilinear

What does matrilinear mean?

matrilinear means "based on or tracing descent through the female line".

How many syllables are in matrilinear?

matrilinear has 5 syllables: ma-tri-li-ne-ar. The stress falls on "li".

What is another word for matrilinear?

Close synonyms include matrilineal. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is matrilinear a common word?

matrilinear is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.