From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmatriarchma‧tri‧arch /ˈmeɪtriɑːk $ -ɑːrk/ noun [countable] SSWFAMILYa woman, especially an older woman, who controls a family or a social group → patriarch
Examples from the Corpus
matriarch• Bossy matriarch Pauline Faaahhhhler finds out she's the real grandma of Sonia's baby and sticks her nose right in.• We then watched it buttonhole every munching matriarch in the flock, crying, ` Did you see?• This painting speaks with burning honesty of man's love, and of his fear, of the overpowering matriarch.• She had been the rock of our whole family, the matriarch, a marvellous, marvellous woman.• I learned my sense of quality and performance from my grandmother, the matriarch of the family.• Yet it seems unlikely that a return to the matriarch ate is either possible or the way ahead.Origin matriarch (1600-1700) matri- + -arch (as in patriarch) 