descendant

[ dih-sen-duhnt ]

noun

1. a person or animal that is descended from a specific ancestor; an offspring.
2. something deriving in appearance, function, or general character from an earlier form.
3. an adherent who follows closely the teachings, methods, practices, etc., of an earlier master, as in art, music, philosophy, etc.; disciple.
4. Astrology.
   1. the point opposite the ascendant.
   2. the point of the ecliptic or the sign and degree of the zodiac setting below the western horizon at the time of a birth or of an event.
   3. the cusp of the seventh house.

adjective

1. descending; descendent.

Descendant

¹

/ dɪˈsɛndənt /

noun

1. astrology the point on the ecliptic lying directly opposite the Ascendant

descendant

²

/ dɪˈsɛndənt /

noun

1. a person, animal, or plant when described as descended from an individual, race, species, etc
2. something that derives or is descended from an earlier form

adjective

1. See descendent
   a variant spelling of descendent

Word History and Origins

Origin of descendant¹

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English descendaunt (adjective), from Old French descendant “going down,” present participle of descendre “to go down”; equivalent to descend + -ant

Example Sentences

All LUCA descendants make their molecular machinery from the same 20 molecules, even though most modern proteins could conceivably work with about half of that repertoire.

From Popular-Science

ExxonMobil, a descendant of the mighty Standard Oil Company, was removed from the Dow Jones industrial average basket of companies in August, a once unthinkable blow to its prestige.

From Washington Post

The state is loaded with descendants of gunpowder grandee Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours, who founded the chemical giant.

From Washington Post

If there’s one thing we know that the world is creating more and more of, it’s data and computing power, which means GPT-3’s descendants are only going to get more clever.

From Singularity Hub 

Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty to federal criminal charges in settlement over opioid crisisDavid Sackler and Kathe Sackler are descendants of two of the three Sackler brothers who bought the company, then called Purdue Frederick, in 1952.

From Washington Post

The twang we hear as emblematic of white country music is actually the direct descendant of black folk music banjo.

From The Daily Beast

Her grandfather had been a physician and healer who—according to family lore—married a descendant of the Osage or Pawnee tribes.

From The Daily Beast

Dr No -- the lineal descendant of Fu Manchu—is the epitome of evil.

From The Daily Beast

In the original Marvel comic books, the Mandarin was born and bred in China, a descendant of Genghis Khan no less.

From The Daily Beast

Boswell is a man of the modern West, a spiritual descendant of the Wallace Stegner school of writing.

From The Daily Beast

But not so: the postilion was an actual baron, the bearer of an ancient name, the descendant of gallant gentlemen.

From Project Gutenberg

She has outlived all her children: her oldest descendant living being a granddaughter, over sixty years old.

From Project Gutenberg

He was a descendant of the famous Abbe de Camps, so well known among bookmen and savants.

From Project Gutenberg

She was the descendant of a long line of courtesans, a feminine branch that had never made legal marriages.

From Project Gutenberg

The old man now dying is the last descendant left on this earth of the old Greek traders.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• heir
• offspring
• scion