adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ancestral
1425–75; late Middle English aunce ( s ) trel < Middle French, equivalent to ancestre ancestor + -el -al 1
Explanation
Ancestral things have been around so long that they once belonged to your ancestors, the family members who lived before your grandparents were born. Your ancestral home is the place your great-grandparents or great-great-uncle once lived. You can also use this adjective to describe things that someone inherited from ancestors, like your friend's ancestral beach cottage or your mom's ancestral set of silverware. Ancestral comes from the Late Latin antecessor, "predecessor," or literally "forgoer," from the root antecedere, "to precede."
Vocabulary lists containing ancestral
"Earthquake"
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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.
“Then I brought in the tall ship bookends and African masks, and the works moved in a more ancestral and political direction.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The island's isolation -- 2,000 kilometres east of the capital Jakarta -- has helped preserve these ancestral social structures.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
The coca leaf is an ancestral crop traditionally used by indigenous communities in teas and medicines.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Every koala alive today appears to descend from a single ancestral population that endured dramatic environmental shifts, including intense glacial periods.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
The ancestral language may derive from what is known as the Hopewell culture.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
