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View synonyms for ancestor

ancestor

[ an-ses-teror, especially British, -suh-ster ]

noun

  1. a person from whom one is descended; forebear; progenitor.
  2. Biology. the actual or hypothetical form or stock from which an organism has developed or descended.
  3. an object, idea, style, or occurrence serving as a prototype, forerunner, or inspiration to a later one:

    The balloon is an ancestor of the modern dirigible.

  4. a person who serves as an influence or model for another; one from whom mental, artistic, spiritual, etc., descent is claimed:

    a philosophical ancestor.

  5. Law. a person from whom an heir derives an inheritance.


ancestor

/ ˈænsɛstə /

noun

  1. often plural a person from whom another is directly descended, esp someone more distant than a grandparent; forefather
  2. an early type of animal or plant from which a later, usually dissimilar, type has evolved
  3. a person or thing regarded as a forerunner of a later person or thing

    the ancestor of the modern camera

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • ˈancestress, noun:feminine
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Word History and Origins

Origin of ancestor1

1250–1300; Middle English ancestre < Old French (with t developed between s and r ) < Latin antecessor antecessor
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Word History and Origins

Origin of ancestor1

C13: from Old French ancestre, from Late Latin antecēssor one who goes before, from Latin antecēdere; see antecede
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Example Sentences

An analysis of molecular alterations in mitochondrial DNA samples indicated that two maternal lineages had split from a common ancestor between about 86,000 and 22,000 years ago.

Eventually alien biologists in these places might concern themselves with a tree of life incorporating multiple planetary incubators, and their genome-mapping companies would tell you who your planetary ancestors were.

None of the matings in any of the generations are between individuals with a common ancestor.

While BigDog is the ancestor of later four-legged robots, like Spot, Petman preceded the two-legged Atlas robot.

Proof that the handedness of particles really can mutate microbes would strengthen their case that cosmic rays shoved our ancestors off the evolutionary starting block, but it still wouldn’t fully explain the uniform chirality of life on Earth.

There is also a mysterious Moomin ancestor who lives permanently in the stove.

Natives from all over the New World could host a great celebration to honor their oldest ancestor.

It is possible to name an ancestor to this obsessive-compulsive noir: David Lynch.

Soon after he was seen stumping for the Assad regime in his ancestor's conflagrated homeland.

Schiele is, if nothing else, an ancestor of the best in long-legged fashion illustration.

He married the widow of —— Bradley, and was the ancestor of the baronets of Caversham, extinct in 1774.

There could not, indeed, be stronger evidence that man has descended from a quadruped ancestor.

In an occasional horse the long-lost stripes of the zebra-like ancestor reappear.

As regards the pointed ear of man's probable ancestor, Darwin calls attention to what seems a trace in man of the lost tip.

This is by no means to suggest that some one of the existing anthropoid apes is the direct ancestor of man.

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-anceancestor worship