forebear
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of forebear
1425–75; Middle English (Scots), equivalent to fore- fore- + -bear “being,” variant of beer; see be, -er 1
Explanation
Your father, grandmother, and great grandfather are all your forebears. A forebear is an ancestor, or someone you are descended from. You might have thought that forebear means to stop yourself from doing something. The word you are thinking of is forbear. Confused? The "e" makes all of the difference here. Whereas the first is a noun, the second is a verb. Just remember that if you see fore like in before, it's the people who came before you.
Vocabulary lists containing forebear
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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:
“Dept. of Speculation” by Jenny Offill is a forebear of the short-and-sweet literary canon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
When he retired after the 1953 season, Leahy had the second-best record in the history of college football, trailing only Knute Rockne, his forebear at Notre Dame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2025
Named for its Star Trek forebear, Holodeck generates a virtually limitless range of indoor environments, using AI to interpret users' requests.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 11, 2024
At the moment, none of the new hominins is convincing as a direct forebear of Homo.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 3, 2024
Thandiwe placed her forebear on the ground and stepped on it, then looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
The state was home to some of the forebears of Hindu nationalism, including the first president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the BJP.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
The University of Aberdeen will now lead a larger five-year exploration of the site, which archaeologists hope could reveal "a great deal about our early prehistoric forebears".
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
Suddenly, it was over, and the U.S. men joined their golden forebears from Lake Placid and Squaw Valley 1960.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
She also started incorporating images of other inspiring women, including her maternal forebears and the Cuban American sculptor Ana Mendieta.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
