patrilineal
/patɹɪˈlɪnɪəl/
"patrilineal" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“patrilineal” is uncommon English (frequency #82,647 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,647
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pertaining to descent through male lines.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | patrilineal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /patɹɪˈlɪnɪəl/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #82,647 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “patrilineal” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
patrilineal is uncommon English at frequency #82,647 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /patɹɪˈlɪnɪəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Pertaining to descent through male lines.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for patrilineal, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From patri- + lineal. Coined by British government anthropologist Northcote Whitridge Thomas in 1904 along with matrilineal. The correct English form is patrilineal, spelled P-A-T-R-I-L-I-N-E-A-L.
Definition
- 1Pertaining to descent through male lines.
Etymology
From patri- + lineal. Coined by British government anthropologist Northcote Whitridge Thomas in 1904 along with matrilineal.
Antonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "patrilineal"?
What does "patrilineal" mean?
How do you pronounce "patrilineal"?
What is the origin of the word "patrilineal"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “patrilineal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-T-R-I-L-I-N-E-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /patɹɪˈlɪnɪəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.