Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Related on or descended from the father's or male side.
- adj. Coming from a common source; akin.
- n. A relative on the father's or male side only.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Specifically, a kinsman whose connection is traceable exclusively through males; more generally, any male relation by the father's side. See agnati.
- Related or akin on the father's side.
- Allied in kind; from a common source: as, “agnate words,” Pownall, Study of Antiquities, p. 168.
Wiktionary
- n. A relative whose relation is traced only through male members of the family.
- adj. Related to someone by male connections or on the paternal side of the family.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Related or akin by the father's side; also, sprung from the same male ancestor; ; in ths sense it is a correlative of
uterine . - adj. Allied; akin.
- n. (Civil Law) A relative whose relationship can be traced exclusively through males.
WordNet 3.0
- n. one related on the father's side
- adj. related on the father's side
Etymologies
- from Latin agnātus ("paternal kinsman"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin agnātus, past participle of agnāscī, to become an agnate : ad-, ad- + nāscī, to be born; see genə- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I daresay the closest agnate relative would inherit.”
“Women remained tied to the domestic sphere and lived under the control of father, husband, or male agnate.”
“If there be no male agnate, the [deceased's] clansmen [20] shall have possession of the estate.”
“Thou art my agnate, and lovely to behold, -- so thou shouldst not be slain by me, -- yet I shall to-day devour thee!”
The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 Books 1, 2 and 3
“It was enacted [174] that all the children should be called to the estate, whether they had been under the power of the testator at the time of his death or not; and female relatives were now allowed to come in for their share "in the third degree," that is, if there was neither a child or an agnate surviving.”
“This was not much of an improvement; and the principle of agnate succession is the only point in which Roman law failed to give to women those equal rights which it allowed them in other cases.”
“The Twelve Tables provided that, in the absence of children, the nearest agnate should be called: this was known as the statutory succession of the agnates.”
“The nearest agnate took, and there was no right of representation, although here again the prætor made innovations which were supplemented by the legislation of Justinian.”
“The father succeeded to his emancipated child, not as an agnate, but as a manumissor.”
“The mother was not an agnate, and did not succeed to her children, nor did they succeed to her.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘agnate’.
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
taramea, tawings, tchicks, timider, tirades, tirings, towings, trailed, trailer, trained, trainee, trainer and 2373 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 343 more...
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 327 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Vocab [General]
No particular specification to this list.
philology, etymology, atavistic, proscribe, inchoate, vulgate, abstruse, agnate, anodize, anthropomorphic, assiduous, augur and 89 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1401 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words to remember from DFW's "Infinite Jest"
wen, matriculation, circumflex, lapidary, effete, sotto, hypertrophy, presbyopic, ideogram, pinion, parquet, nelson and 152 more...
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madamepsychosis's Words
mollify, salubrious, prandial, coup de grace, ineluctable, metempsychosis, pedant, conatus, oeuvre, laconic, solipsism, vapid and 265 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1406 more...
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hagendas 2008
mise-en-scene, occultation, lodestone, obdurate, remontoire, filigree, insensate, carapace, vicissitude, verdigris, indivuation, intercalate and 224 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for agnate.

knitandpurl "This was Cincinnati—the capital of pork, the first truly American city—sprawled before the eyes of two little boys under the momentary aegis of one Mike Shaughnessy, truck driver, half-hearted Lothario, collector of children, poor Irish agnate, known in high school as that fucking Irish fuck."
"Twins" by C.E. Morgan in The New Yorker, June 14 & 21, 2010, page 123 Jul 12, 2010