ancestry

American  

[an-ses-tree, -suh-stree] / ˈæn sɛs tri, -sə stri /

noun

ancestries plural

1. family or ancestral descent; lineage.

   Synonyms:

   stock, genealogy, pedigree

2. honorable or distinguished descent.

   famous by title and ancestry.

3. a series of ancestors.

   His ancestry settled Utah.

   Synonyms:

   line, family

4. the inception or origin of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.

5. the history or developmental process of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.

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ancestry British  

/ ˈænsɛstrɪ /

noun

1. lineage or descent, esp when ancient, noble, or distinguished

2. ancestors collectively

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• ancestries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ancestry

1300–50; Middle English, equivalent to ancestre ancestor + -y ³; replacing Middle English aunce ( s ) trie < Anglo-French

Explanation

Have a family tree hanging on the wall? Then you know a bit about your ancestry, or family history and lineage. If you think ancestry sounds like ancestor, then you're headed in the right direction. Ancestry is basically a history of ancestors, a trail of where your family started and all the descendants that followed. But ancestry goes much further than just your great-great-grand uncle's brother. You can also use the word ancestry to refer to the background of things other than people — such as the ancestry of a building or the ancestry of a nation.

Related Words

• ancestor
• antecedent
• descent
• extraction
• forebear
• genealogy
• heritage
• lineage
• origin
• parentage