materfamilias

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The film earned five Oscar nominations, including a best supporting actress nod for the veteran Billie Burke as the materfamilias of a wealthy but wacky family.

From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026

The novel recounts the history and hardships of the Binewski clan, carnival folk whose pater- and materfamilias, Al and Crystal Lil, create their own freak show.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2022

If all you need from the new “Roseanne” is Ms. Barr’s materfamilias sarcasm, the crack team of comedy actors surrounding her and an update of the show’s working-class gallows humor, it has you covered.

From New York Times • Mar. 26, 2018

That loyalty can also be, at times, very foolish, to the extent where even Goodfellas materfamilias Karen Hill would question such irrational devotion.

From The Guardian • Oct. 11, 2016

The morrow will find her a materfamilias, sitting among her maids in that atrium, or in the more private apartments behind it:   Claudite ostia, virgines   Lusimus satis.

From Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by Fowler, W. Warde