Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A woman who is the head of a household or the mother of a family.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The female head of a household

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a female head of a family or tribe

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin māterfamiliās : māter, mother; see mater + familiās, archaic genitive of familia, household; see family.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin māter familiās, mother of the household

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Examples

  • And thank you for taking time from your busy days to let us know. materfamilias |

    Jack 2009

  • This evening, the spirits seem a little more accurate, particularly when they alight on a group of three Indian women, two older and one younger, who seem thrilled with information from their materfamilias; her grand-daughter is barely able to contain her excitement, even when she's being told to tidy her bedroom.

    Among the psychics 2011

  • But for me, you did manage to capture all of that in one delightful anecdote. materfamilias |

    boss 2008

  • So concentrate your energies on your family and on that novel and blog only when you want to — RSS can let us know when that is. materfamilias |

    Q&A #2 2008

  • Tiberius needed people to accept Livia as both kingmaker and Roman materfamilias par excellence.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • I look forward to reading, first, Petite and someday, your novel. materfamilias |

    post mortem 2008

  • As a ninety-two-year-old materfamilias, Alice had one chief regret: “I took Maryann and Amy away from the farm, where they were happy as little girls, and exposed them to a more complicated world.”

    Raymond Carver Carol Sklenicka 2009

  • Because the materfamilias - for all her right-on, knit-your-own-lentils, manky-haired bullshit - was, once you scratched the surface, the most hyper-competitive pushy bitch of a mother it's humanly possible to imagine.

    Woodcraft Folk Memories juliette 2009

  • Because the materfamilias - for all her right-on, knit-your-own-lentils, manky-haired bullshit - was, once you scratched the surface, the most hyper-competitive pushy bitch of a mother it's humanly possible to imagine.

    Archive 2009-07-01 juliette 2009

  • Not that you need more advertising. materfamilias |

    anniversaries 2007

Comments

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  • The votes had been willy nilly cast

    Electing our materfamilias.

    Electoral flunkies

    (Those mischievous monkeys)

    Appointed instead a male silly ass.

    May 14, 2017