ancestry
Americannoun
-
ancestries
plural
noun
-
lineage or descent, esp when ancient, noble, or distinguished
-
ancestors collectively
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ancestry
1300–50; Middle English, equivalent to ancestre ancestor + -y 3; replacing Middle English aunce ( s ) trie < Anglo-French
Explanation
Have a family tree hanging on the wall? Then you know a bit about your ancestry, or family history and lineage. If you think ancestry sounds like ancestor, then you're headed in the right direction. Ancestry is basically a history of ancestors, a trail of where your family started and all the descendants that followed. But ancestry goes much further than just your great-great-grand uncle's brother. You can also use the word ancestry to refer to the background of things other than people — such as the ancestry of a building or the ancestry of a nation.
Vocabulary lists containing ancestry
It's All in the Family
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Central America and the Caribbean - Introductory
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Central America and the Caribbean - Middle School and High School
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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.
See Examples For:
Throughout, “Curved Air” demonstrates why ancestry must remain part of the medical conversation—and need not fuel fears of discrimination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
About 22% said being Jewish is a matter of culture, while 21% said it was a matter of ancestry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
Each event leaves a lasting genomic record that can serve as a marker of shared ancestry.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026
Eleven of the 30 children have now taken commercial DNA tests which show they have inherited genetic ancestry from Turkey or surrounding countries.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
“They were of Japanese ancestry, but they had built lives in America. They were part of American communities.”
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
But Prof Kumaresan says that more research is needed to properly establish the ancestries of Keeladi's residents.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2025
Census making it easier in 2020 to identify multiple racial and ethnic ancestries, the percentage of multiracial Americans blossomed to 33.8 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2024
But I think the biggest challenge is to bring in scientists of diverse ancestries into this—that’s really what we want.
From Science Magazine ● May 23, 2024
A similar effect was seen in samples from other ancestries, but further research using larger sample sizes will be needed to confirm this connection.
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2024
The subject was forbidden at school where the teachers never referred to the colossal struggle that was rending Europe and the children of varied ancestries played together harmoniously in the school yard.
From Ethel Morton and the Christmas Ship by Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke) Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
