Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

ancestral

American  
[an-ses-truhl] / ænˈsɛs trəl /

adjective

  1. pertaining to ancestors; descending or claimed from ancestors.

    an ancestral home.

  2. serving as a forerunner, prototype, or inspiration.

ancestral British  
/ ænˈsɛstrəl /

adjective

  1. of, inherited from, or derived from ancestors

    his ancestral home
"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

noun

  1. logic a relation that holds between x and y if there is a chain of instances of a given relation leading from x to y. Thus the ancestral of parent of is ancestor of, since x is the ancestor of y if and only if x is a parent of…a parent of…a parent of y

"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

Other Word Forms

  • ancestrally adverb
  • nonancestral adjective
  • nonancestrally adverb
  • pseudoancestral adjective
  • pseudoancestrally adverb

Etymology

Origin of ancestral

1425–75; late Middle English aunce ( s ) trel < Middle French, equivalent to ancestre ancestor + -el -al 1

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.

The tribe is now grappling with the sudden loss of jobs, along with the dimming of hope that the culturally sacred fish will be restored to their ancestral waters.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026

More than half of all Emiratis trace their ancestral roots to southern Iran, said Mira Al Hussein, an associate fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s Alwaleed bin Talal Centre.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

Their loved one's ashes are placed inside and the space turned into an ancestral shrine.

From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026

By comparing how these gene clusters are arranged across hundreds of plant genomes and tracing their patterns from ancestral species to modern plants, they were able to detect conserved elements that earlier methods had missed.

From Science Daily • Mar. 14, 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.