ancestor

American  

[an-ses-ter, -suh-ster] / ˈæn sɛs tər, -sə stər /

noun

• ancestors
  plural

1. a person from whom one is descended; forebear; progenitor.

2. Biology. the actual or hypothetical form or stock from which an organism has developed or descended.

3. an object, idea, style, or occurrence serving as a prototype, forerunner, or inspiration to a later one.

   The balloon is an ancestor of the modern dirigible.

4. a person who serves as an influence or model for another; one from whom mental, artistic, spiritual, etc., descent is claimed.

   a philosophical ancestor.

5. Law. a person from whom an heir derives an inheritance.

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ancestor British  

/ ˈænsɛstə /

noun

1. (often plural) a person from whom another is directly descended, esp someone more distant than a grandparent; forefather

2. an early type of animal or plant from which a later, usually dissimilar, type has evolved

3. a person or thing regarded as a forerunner of a later person or thing

   the ancestor of the modern camera

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• ancestress
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ancestors
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of ancestor

1250–1300; Middle English ancestre < Old French (with t developed between s and r ) < Latin antecessor antecessor

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Explanation

An ancestor came before. Your grandmother's grandmother and any relative before her is one of your ancestors. Ante-, a common Latin prefix, means "before." Cedere is Latin for "to go." So, an ancestor is someone who has gone before us. Evolutionary biologists have advanced the theory that all life on earth descends from a common ancestor. Ancestor can also mean "prototype" or "forerunner." The abacus is a distant ancestor of today's supercomputers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ancestor ancestors

Later in the 19th century, King Charles’s ancestor King William IV spent decades opposing abolition before eventually giving royal sign off on laws to make slavery illegal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Then about 1.25 billion years ago, one of these photosynthesizing bacteria partnered with another one-celled organism to create green algae, one lineage of which became the ancestor of all plants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

"A reimagined Citroën 2CV should give a big nod to its ancestor - especially on price and design simplicity as well as visual cues," he says.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

Researchers also computationally reconstructed the genome of the ancient ancestor shared by all living bats.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

Every two species that evolved from a common ancestor, such as horses and donkeys, were at one time just two populations of the same species, like bulldogs and spaniels.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

A 2019 review in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology documents at least three distinct introgression events from Denisovan-like populations into south-east Asian and Oceanic ancestors alone, some occurring as recently as 20,000 years ago.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026

“This work represents more than land conservation. It represents our history, our identity, our connection, our ancestors and our responsibility to the future generations.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

In the mid-17th century Morris’s ancestors settled in what would become the Bronx, N.Y., and flourished.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Several of them have demanded the king takes the next step in making amends for colonisation and the transatlantic slave trade, which his ancestors profited off for centuries.

From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026

“Yeah. Those are the indigo fields. Do you know the story of how our ancestors infused the Gift into blue-glass bottles using indigo plants?”

From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas

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Related Words

• forebear
• forefather
• founder

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