Meaning & use
Agnates
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Relatives connected through the male line of descent, such as a father's brothers and their children.
See it in a sentence
Under Roman law, only agnates had automatic inheritance rights within the family.
The genealogist traced the estate's agnates back five generations on the paternal side.
A note on using this word
The singular is 'agnate'; the concept comes from Roman law, where agnatio defined family membership and inheritance through male ancestry rather than blood relation generally.
Words with a similar meaning
paternal kinpatrilineal relatives
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Words with an opposite meaning
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