posterity
Americannoun
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succeeding or future generations collectively.
Judgment of this age must be left to posterity.
-
all descendants of one person.
His fortune was gradually dissipated by his posterity.
noun
-
future or succeeding generations
-
all of one's descendants
Etymology
Origin of posterity
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English posterite, from Old French postérité, from Latin posteritāt-, stem of posteritās, noun derivative of posterus “coming after”; see posterior, -ity
Explanation
Posterity is a noun meaning "future generations." These people of the future could be your children and great-great grandchildren, or any people who are born after you. If you save something "for posterity," you're hoping that years later people will appreciate it, like a time capsule you bury in the yard. The word comes from the Latin word for "post, after." It's also related to the word posterior, which means "behind, to come after in time." In legal terms, posterity refers to the offspring of a person and it often has to do with inheriting property and who is entitled to do so.
Vocabulary lists containing posterity
Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (1787)
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"On Women's Right to Vote" by Susan B. Anthony
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"Sonnet 55" by William Shakespeare
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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.
But posterity will almost certainly remember Monday as the “Wemby game,” in which the 22-year-old Frenchman single-handedly dismantled one of the greatest teams, statistically, that the NBA has ever seen.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
Like Queen Victoria, Zadie Smith and many others, she had concluded that posterity would be better served without her full diary than with it.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026
There’s a stirring moment when Mikki frantically draws his memories of Iris and Arco on the wall of a cave for posterity.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 22, 2025
The audience was breathless not only with excitement but with phone activity recording the encounter for digital posterity.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025
But he had also spent those same years marveling at the benefits that accrued to anyone willing to pose for posterity in the mythical mode.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
