heteropatriarchy means the dominance of heterosexual males in society. It carries an Arena rating of 1259, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, heteropatriarchy ranks #92 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #97 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #6,367 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #8,949 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “heteropatriarchy” is a great word
A hierarchical social system where heterosexual men hold primary power, structurally privileging heterosexuality and reinforcing rigid gender binaries while marginalizing other sexualities. From the combining form hetero- (from Greek ἕτερος, meaning "other, different," here denoting "heterosexual") + patriarchy (from Greek πατριάρχης, meaning "father" + "rule"). Unlike "patriarchy," a broader system of male dominance that may not explicitly foreground compulsory heterosexuality as its core engine, or "cisnormativity," which specifically assumes cisgender identity as a default, heteropatriarchy is the interlocking machinery of both. It is the unspoken dress code of a corporate boardroom, the clinical textbook that diagrams only one kind of family, and the invisible fence around a playground dividing "boys" from "girls"—a totalizing architecture designed to make its own logic seem as natural and inevitable as breath.
Etymology
From hetero- + patriarchy.
noun
- The dominance of heterosexual males in society.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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