bloodline
Americannoun
-
bloodlines
plural
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:
The “Game of Thrones” prequel boasts many dragons, most of them bound to the Targaryen royal bloodline.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
Although Ju Ae is of the bloodline, North Korea's patriarchal system would not see her as being of the bloodline, Ryu says.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 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
It was not a bloodline trust, but I was told it was still being finalized.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026
Unlike Burr’s distinguished bloodline, which gave his aristocratic bearing its roots and biological rationale, Hamilton’s more dashing and consistently audacious style developed as a willful personal wager against the odds of his impoverished origins.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
"You're losing bloodlines as well. So it's all got an impact. It has to be thought about."
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
A brisk walk through this year’s picks with intriguing bloodlines:
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
That image is a family portrait, albeit one crisscrossed with cruelty and deception, including fraudulent bloodlines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
In Cleveland, I found relatives whose faces felt like mirrors of mine, an eerie recognition that happens when bloodlines reintroduce themselves after decades of distance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
My mother is of Guatemalan descent, while my father’s bloodlines run through México.
From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez
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.
