- the male head of a family or tribal line.
- a person regarded as the father or founder of an order, class, etc.
- any of the very early Biblical personages regarded as the fathers of the human race, comprising those from Adam to Noah (antediluvian patriarchs ) and those between the Deluge and the birth of Abraham.
- any of the three great progenitors of the Israelites: Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.
- any of the sons of Jacob (the twelve patriarchs ), from whom the tribes of Israel were descended.
- (in the early Christian church) any of the bishops of any of the ancient sees of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem, or Rome having authority over other bishops.
- the head of any of the ancient sees of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, or Jerusalem, and sometimes including other sees of chief cities.
- the head of certain other churches in the East, as the Coptic, Nestorian, and Armenian churches, that are not in full communication with the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.
- Roman Catholic Church.
- the pope as patriarch of the West.
- any of certain bishops of the Eastern rites, as a head of an Eastern rite or a bishop of one of the ancient sees.
- the head of a Uniate church.
- any of the high dignitaries who pronounce the blessing of the church; Evangelist.
- one of the elders or leading older members of a community.
- a venerable old man.
- the male head of a tribe or family
- a very old or venerable man
- any of a number of persons regarded as the fathers of the human race, divided into the antediluvian patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, and the postdiluvian, from Noah to Abraham
- any of the three ancestors of the Hebrew people: Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob
- any of Jacob's twelve sons, regarded as the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel
- the bishop of one of several principal sees, esp those of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria
- the bishops of the four ancient principal sees of Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, and also of Russia, Romania, and Serbia, the bishop of Constantinople (the ecumenical Patriarch) being highest in dignity among these
- RC Church
- a title given to the pope
- a title given to a number of bishops, esp of the Uniat Churches, indicating their rank as immediately below that of the pope
- Mormon Church another word for Evangelist (def. 2)
- the head of the Coptic, Armenian, Syrian Jacobite, or Nestorian Churches, and of certain other non-Orthodox Churches in the East
- the oldest or most venerable member of a group, community, etc
- a person regarded as the founder of a community, tradition, etc
