Definition of "matriarchy" [matriarchy]

• A social system in which the mother is head of the family. (noun)
• A family, community, or society based on this system or governed by women. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Man – I really need to figure out where the secret lair of the matriarchy is so that I can infiltrate and become one of them."
• "That is why the translators have seldom used the terms matriarchy and patriarchy; and for this and other reasons they have passed over Bachofen's terms "androcracy" and "gynecocracy" in favour of Anglo-Saxon equivalents with somewhat different implications."
• "More generally, a matriarchy is a society dominated by women."