patriarch

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Definitions (23)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. noun A man who rules a family, clan, or tribe.
  2. noun Bible One of the antediluvian progenitors of the human race, from Adam to Noah.
  3. noun Bible Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or any of Jacob's 12 sons, the eponymous progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • This is one of the few pieces of theology in the Antiquities , and we are fain to believe that he borrowed it from Nicholas, who is quoted immediately afterwards, or from pseudo-Hecataeus, a Jewish pseudepigraphic historian, to whom a book on the patriarch was ascribed. —  Josephus
  • He understood physical contact with their patriarch was the Cabalists only taboo, and yet two of them were being beckoned into the First's arms by the man himself The errant Cabalists stepped woodenly forward shuffling like sleepwalkers. —  SCOTT McGOUGH
  • The 82-year-old Sena patriarch was admitted to Lilavati hospital in suburban Bandra on February 26 after he complained of fever and weakness. —  Daily News & Analysis
  • - Ralph Stanley is known as the patriarch of bluegrass. —  The Herald-Mail Online
  • Jasmatbhai Patel is described as the patriarch, who was on his way to help at the family fruit market when set upon in west Auckland. —  ta tvnz national headlines auto group
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

pastor ·  prophet ·  prelate ·  abbot ·  sire ·  matron ·  chieftain ·  ruler ·  dean ·  apostle ·  founder ·  bishop
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English patriarche, from Old French, from Late Latin patriarcha, from Greek patriarkhēs : patriā, lineage (from patēr, patr-, father; see pəter- in Indo-European roots) + -arkhēs, -arch.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also patriark; from Middle English patriark, patriarke = Old French patriarche, French patriarche = Spanish patriarca = Portuguese patriarca, patriarcha = Italian patriarca = D. G. patriarch = Swedish Danish patriark, from Late Latin patriarcha, patriarches, from Greek πατριάρχης, the chief of a tribe or race, from πατριά, lineage, a race (from πατήρ, father), + ἄρχειν, rule.
 

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/ˈpeɪtrɪɑrk/
by American Heritage

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