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   Pa·tri·arch

   /ˈpātrēˌärk/

   

   noun

   • 1. the male head of a family or tribe.
   • ▪ a man who is the oldest or most venerable of a group: "Hollywood's reigning patriarch rose to speak"
   • ▪ a person or thing that is regarded as the founder of something: "the patriarch of all spin doctors"
   • 2. any of those biblical figures regarded as fathers of the human race, especially Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their forefathers, or the sons of Jacob.
   • 3. a bishop of one of the most ancient Christian sees (Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and formerly Rome).
   • ▪ the head of an autocephalous or independent Orthodox Church: "Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia"
   • ▪ a Roman Catholic bishop ranking above primates and metropolitans and immediately below the Pope, often the head of a Uniate community: "Patriarch of Venice"

   Word Origin Middle English: from Old French patriarche, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek patriarkhēs, from patria ‘family’ + arkhēs ‘ruling’.

   Scrabble Points: 16

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