WordWeb Online

1. Title for the heads of the Eastern Orthodox Churches (in Istanbul and Alexandria and Moscow and Jerusalem)
    
2. The male head of family or tribe
   - paterfamilias
    
3. Any of the early biblical characters regarded as fathers of the human race
    
4. A man who is older and higher in rank than yourself

Derived forms: patriarchs

See also: patriarchal

Type of: adult male, father, forefather, graybeard [US], greybeard [Brit, Cdn], head of household, man, Methuselah, old man, sire, spiritual leader

Encyclopedia: Patriarch