How to Use patrilineal in a Sentence

patrilineal

adjective
  • Vampire Weekend’s songs, which stem from patrilineal culture, are also about its fracture.
    — Armond White, National Review, 10 Dec. 2019
  • Meanwhile, Justin Locke’s son is 9, so there’s a fifth generation in his patrilineal line who could ascend to the helm.
    — Carson Kessler, ProPublica, 25 July 2022
  • Since the system was based on patrilineal descent, a woman could secure her children’s future by marrying someone from a higher caste than her own.
    — Melissa Pandika, The Cut, 31 Jan. 2018
  • But Harding says the real sticking point is the potential loss of patrilineal succession.
    — CNN, 26 Oct. 2021
  • Now King Akeem, the father of three daughters, seeks his patrilineal heir via another transcontinental mission.
    — Armond White, National Review, 12 Mar. 2021
  • The film tells the story of a mother and housewife who pretends to be pregnant after her husband’s sudden death in order to subvert the country’s patrilineal inheritance laws.
    — Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 17 Nov. 2022
  • They are subdivided into smaller patrilineal units, as well as territorial sections.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 14 June 2011
  • The imperial women are also expected to maintain patrilineal succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne by giving birth to male heirs.
    — Time, 3 Nov. 2021
  • Whereas most of China is patrilineal, with children taking on the surnames of their fathers, the Mosuo are matrilineal, with children taking on the surnames of their mothers.
    — Charles Choi, Discover Magazine, 8 Jan. 2018
  • This situation allowed the researchers to perform a simple experiment, checking for signs of chronic disease in the matrilineal and patrilineal households.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 19 Nov. 2020
  • The Dutton family, while kept together by its matriarchs (all Dutton spouses appear to outlast their husbands—with the exception of Evelyn), is patrilineal.
    — Joshua St. Clair, Men's Health, 5 Feb. 2023
  • For the more recent study, the researchers used historical documents to construct a patrilineal map of five branches traced from Leonardo’s father, Ser Piero, and half-brother Domenico.
    — Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 July 2021
  • This observation suggests that the main patrilineal expansion in China occurred in the Neolithic Era and might be related to the development of agriculture.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2013
  • Westeros is traditionally a patrilineal society, so Jon’s claim would traditionally be greater—but now that Cersei is rewriting the rules as Queen of Westeros, who knows?
    — Scott Meslow, GQ, 14 Aug. 2017
  • Name extinction is also a naturally occurring phenomenon called the Galton-Watson process, which posits that in patrilineal societies, surnames are lost or die out over time with each new generation as women take on their husbands' surnames.
    — Jessie Yeung, CNN, 16 Jan. 2021
  • Co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, a biotech analyst, 23andMe used autosomal DNA, which could better trace recent relatives on both the patrilineal and the matrilineal lines.
    — Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'patrilineal.' 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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