How to Use matriarchal in a Sentence

matriarchal

adjective
  • An elephant needs a matriarchal herd, which then allows the males to go off as loners and meet up with the herd from time to time.
    — Jack McCordick, The New Republic, 16 Feb. 2023
  • Herds are matriarchal, and all the females chip in to raise the calves communally.
    — Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 28 Jan. 2025
  • For the first two years of his life, Kik mostly stayed in the lower Yukon River basin, almost certainly in a matriarchal herd.
    — Richard Grant, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Their society is matriarchal, with the pods led by grandmothers and mothers.
    — oregonlive, 8 May 2021
  • From the outset, the premise of Monstress and its tale is a dire one: imagine a 1900s alternative universe controlled by a cruel matriarchal society in Asia.
    — Tiffany Leigh, Forbes, 13 Mar. 2025
  • For 50 years, a secretive matriarchal religious order has stolen the hearts of thousands of women.
    — Addie Morfoot, Variety, 22 Aug. 2023
  • My mom was really strong, and so is her mom, and her mom, and her mom — a very matriarchal family, in general, on both sides, all my grandmothers, and great-grandmothers.
    — Rania Aniftos, Billboard, 26 Sep. 2024
  • According to the study, the Romans found these matriarchal societies rather remarkable but may have written a skewed view of them to make the society seem less civilized.
    — Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 15 Jan. 2025
  • Andor is a matriarchal society, and so his power and influence, though vast, are always second to that of his Queen, to whom his loyalties and services are sworn.
    — Denise Petski, Deadline, 18 Dec. 2024
  • In the wild, European bison have a matriarchal social structure, similar to that of elephants.
    — Victoria Turk, Wired, 19 July 2022
  • Told from the perspectives of two young women — Indir and Saya — the novel takes place in and around the city of Alcanzeh, a mostly matriarchal society informed by Mesoamerican societies.
    — Seth Combs Writer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Feb. 2022
  • The society has been and remains matriarchal and matrilocal, with husbands moving in with their wives’ families.
    — Byandrew Curry, science.org, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Her roles on the silver screen, often depicting matriarchal characters is what earned her an Academy Award and Golden Globe.
    — Elise Brisco, USA TODAY, 1 May 2021
  • She’s previously described her last album, Preacher’s Daughter, as the first of a trilogy, with the next two albums set to explore the psyches of the matriarchal line of the fictional Cain family.
    — James Factora, Them, 1 Nov. 2024
  • Pods usually consist of a matriarchal female and her offspring.
    — Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 17 Jan. 2024
  • Both Farr and Tyler are at their best delivering the inner thoughts, frustrations, and sly humor of the main character, Mercy Garratt, a woman trapped in her matriarchal role by both family ties and custom.
    — The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Aug. 2022
  • African elephants are highly social animals, living in matriarchal herds led by a female elder.
    — David Faris, Newsweek, 10 July 2024
  • Her decisions feel more rooted in matriarchal sacrifice than anything else, which minimizes her choice to protect not just her family, but also herself.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 2 May 2024
  • In the film, Barbie Land is this matriarchal feminist utopia where every race and ethnicity is represented ... except Latinas.
    — Fidel Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 27 July 2023
  • Now, matriarchal families are leading the majority of businesses on the island.
    — Victoria Leandra, refinery29.com, 9 July 2024
  • Research into feral colonies shows that cats tend to form matriarchal social bonds; females will adhere more closely to one another (typically in a community of mothers, aunts and sisters).
    — Colleen Grablick, Washington Post, 12 Mar. 2024
  • The atmosphere, though heavy at times, was familial and infused with a distinct matriarchal energy that is invigorating and powerful.
    — Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 23 Oct. 2024
  • Barbary macaque troops are also matriarchal, with dominance determined by relatedness to the top-ranking female.
    — Jonathan Granoff, Newsweek, 29 Jan. 2025
  • This counters the hypothesis that Çatalhöyük was a matriarchal society with a priestess class, as that should result in material evidence of quality-of-life differences.
    — The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 10 Dec. 2024
  • Whales live in matriarchal societies, with their own dialects and multigenerational family bonds.
    — T. Nelson Thompson, Baltimore Sun, 14 June 2024
  • The book follows Tom’s moral development, guided by three matriarchal fairies—with political and scientific asides—and the whole can be read as an allegory for the moral principles inhering in evolutionary processes.
    — Ben Woollard, JSTOR Daily, 29 Jan. 2025
  • Ellis-Taylor, who plays two very different matriarchal characters in the films, is eager for audiences to experience Ross’ deeply affecting work, primarily told from a first-person perspective, rather than by a narrator as in Whitehead’s book.
    — Kara Warner, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2024
  • Perhaps the proximity of Lesbos, where Sappho wrote of the sexiness of female separatism, made matriarchal societies seem perfectly plausible.
    — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 14 Feb. 2024
  • The early riot-grrrl scene was characterized by a matriarchal spirit of creative collaboration.
    — Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2024
  • And there are communities that are matriarchal societies, there are patriarchal societies.
    — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Feb. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'matriarchal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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