bloodline
Americannoun
noun
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.
The union would potentially create a new caliphal bloodline relocated in India.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 4, 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
But poverty also ran in the bloodline, Ackmann explains, with Parton growing up “dirt poor” in a log cabin without running water or electricity.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 2026
“There’s power in your bloodline, Kwame Powell,” Asase Yaa says.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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.
