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.

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ancestral British  

/ ænˈsɛstrəl /

adjective

1. of, inherited from, or derived from ancestors

   his ancestral home

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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

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

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."

Example Sentences

The highway traverses the ancestral homelands of more than 25 tribal nations.

From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2026

A new law, which came into force in December, aims to correct that historical inequity, by allowing not just the children of Canadians to claim citizenship, but anyone who can prove an ancestral tie.

From BBC • May 1, 2026

"This new species, Cimolodon desosai, was ancestral to the species that survived the extinction event. It and its descendants were relatively small and omnivorous -- two traits that were advantageous for surviving."

From Science Daily • Apr. 27, 2026

Mr. Bessent went from boarding schools and debutante balls to serious financial distress and spent a portion of his childhood in the guest house of his ancestral home.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

Sometime in the distant past, a line of ancestral creatures must have developed this structure and found it worked, just as generations of long-ago crawling things in Mary’s world had developed the central spine.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

Related Words

• familial
• tribal