ancestor

American  

[an-ses-ter, -suh-ster] / ˈæn sɛs tər, -sə stər /

noun

• ancestors
  plural

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.

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ancestor British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• ancestress
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ancestors
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of ancestor

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

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Explanation

An ancestor came before. Your grandmother's grandmother and any relative before her is one of your ancestors. Ante-, a common Latin prefix, means "before." Cedere is Latin for "to go." So, an ancestor is someone who has gone before us. Evolutionary biologists have advanced the theory that all life on earth descends from a common ancestor. Ancestor can also mean "prototype" or "forerunner." The abacus is a distant ancestor of today's supercomputers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ancestor ancestors

It remains the most geographically widespread human ancestor that ever lived.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026

Importantly, the researchers are not claiming that Masripithecus was a direct ancestor of humans or even necessarily the direct ancestor of living apes.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026

"A reimagined Citroën 2CV should give a big nod to its ancestor - especially on price and design simplicity as well as visual cues," he says.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

Paul Theroux’s final travelogue takes him to the land of an ancestor who arrived by ‘dumb luck and good timing.’

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

My ancestor is marching behind Susan B. Anthony who is leading a group to the polls in Rochester.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

The most reasonable interpretation is that H. erectus populations in east Asia passed this variant to Denisovans through interbreeding, and Denisovans later passed it on to the ancestors of modern south-east Asians and Oceanians.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026

“This work represents more than land conservation. It represents our history, our identity, our connection, our ancestors and our responsibility to the future generations.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

In the mid-17th century Morris’s ancestors settled in what would become the Bronx, N.Y., and flourished.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Several of them have demanded the king takes the next step in making amends for colonisation and the transatlantic slave trade, which his ancestors profited off for centuries.

From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026

“Like our own ancestors, that is true. How they suffered, and yet they held on to so many African traditions and music. Like our Celia.”

From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar

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Related Words

• forebear
• forefather
• founder

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