bloodline
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bloodline
Explanation
Your bloodline is your heritage or ancestry. In other words, your bloodline includes your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. You might talk about the bloodline of a show dog, bragging about the pedigree of your funny-looking terrier. Sometime a horse's bloodline is also a selling point, particularly when someone is betting on a race horse. You have a bloodline too, although the word more often describes the heritage of a famous or royal family. The Old English root word blod, means "blood." By the 13th century, blood also meant "family" or "heritage."
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.
See Examples For:
"Kim Jong Un became heir in his 20s despite having no achievements, solely because of the Paektu bloodline," Ryu Hyun-woo, an exiled North Korea diplomat, wrote in his book, Kim Jong Un's Secret Vault.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
The “Game of Thrones” prequel boasts many dragons, most of them bound to the Targaryen royal bloodline.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades, and a cult of personality surrounding their "Paektu bloodline" dominates daily life in the isolated country.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
That trust showed a $500,000 transfer from my father, explicitly described as a gift, made at the same time my father was supposedly creating his bloodline trust.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026
Without their strengthening the bloodline, Faerie would die out, despite the endless span of their lives.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
A brisk walk through this year’s picks with intriguing bloodlines:
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
The reunion focused primarily on descendants of Willie Rosenthal’s son, the Rev. Taylor Rosenthal Sr., his 10 children and each of their respective bloodlines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
I delivered a speech arguing that the U.S. is a nation defined above all by ideals, not shared bloodlines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
“When it was introduced, every breeder jumped on it for its bloodlines because of its fragrance and foliage,” Carruth said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
Because I'm adopted, and you don't like to say it, but you value bloodlines.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
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.
