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Which U.S. document mentions posterity in its preamble?

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posterity

American  

[po-ster-i-tee] / pɒˈstɛr ɪ ti /

noun

posterities plural

1. succeeding or future generations collectively.

   Judgment of this age must be left to posterity.

2. all descendants of one person.

   His fortune was gradually dissipated by his posterity.

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posterity British  

/ pɒˈstɛrɪtɪ /

noun

1. future or succeeding generations

2. all of one's descendants

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• posterities
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

posterity posterities

In one training session filmed for posterity, a preteen Brunson asked his dad how many repetitions he had to do.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

Donation for posterity offers a paradoxical solution to two great problems associated with keeping a diary.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026

Videos on social media and YouTube show people tagging empty storefronts, skateboarding or riding bicycles indoors and urban explorers touring the abandoned spaces for posterity or to look for signs of paranormal activity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2026

But praise was poured upon the humble pint's place in the nation's history, cultural life and language, and the government moved to ensure the measurement was preserved for posterity.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025

They turn out to be little separate creatures, the colonial posterity of migrant prokaryocytes, probably primitive bacteria that swam into ancestral precursors of our eukaryotic cells and stayed there.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

Reading one day of the many conquests of England, he bethought himselfe how he might keepe it hereafter from the like conquests, and so make himselfe famous hereafter to all posterities.

From Witch, Warlock, and Magician Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland by Adams, W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport)

Shakespeare's ghost has seen two or three posterities, beautifully at odds.

From A Book of Prefaces by Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)

He asked indignantly how the House of Lords could expect the Commons to give their concurrence to a measure "by which they and their posterities are to be excluded from the Peerage."

From A History of the Four Georges, Volume I by McCarthy, Justin

During those primeval centuries, there lived at the same time nine patriarchs, together with their posterities, and all of them in harmony concerning the faith in the blessed seed!

From Commentary on Genesis, Vol. II Luther on Sin and the Flood by Lenker, John Nicholas

If you and those in power with you should be found walking in the King’s steps, can you secure yourselves or posterities from an overturn?

From The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer by Berens, Lewis Henry