genealogy
Americannoun
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genealogies
plural
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a record or account of the ancestry and descent of a person, family, group, etc.
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the study of family ancestries and histories.
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descent from an original form or progenitor; lineage; ancestry.
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Biology. a group of individuals or species having a common ancestry.
The various species of Darwin's finches form a closely knit genealogy.
noun
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the direct descent of an individual or group from an ancestor
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the study of the evolutionary development of animals and plants from earlier forms
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a chart showing the relationships and descent of an individual, group, genes, etc
Usage
What is genealogy? Genealogy is the study of ancestry and descent of a person or a family. Genealogy can also refer to the actual chart detailing this information. This is often called a family tree. Genealogy is the process of studying someone’s ancestors and descendants and trying to record their family history and relatives. For example, if you decide to learn more about your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on (that is, your ancestors), you are practicing genealogy. If you decide to learn more about President Theodore Roosevelt’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on (that is, his descendants), you are also practicing genealogy. In biology, the word genealogy is used to describe a group of individuals or species that have a common ancestry. For example, a biologist might be interested in the genealogy of dogs and wolves when researching how they became separated from each other.
Synonym Usage
See pedigree.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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genealogistnoun
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genealogicadjective
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genealogicaladjective
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nongenealogicadjective
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nongenealogicaladjective
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genealogicallyadverb
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nongenealogicallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of genealogy
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English genealogie, from Middle French, from Late Latin geneālogia, from Greek geneālogía “pedigree,” equivalent to geneā́ “race” + -logia noun suffix; see gene -logy
Explanation
Your genealogy is the story of your ancestry, sometimes referred to as your family tree. Most Americans can trace their genealogy back to Europe, Africa, and Asia, but that's not a hard and fast rule. The first clue to the meaning of the word genealogy is in the root "gene," as in "passed on through the genes." Add to that the suffix -logy, which means "study," and you get genealogy, the study of one's origins. While some folks are eager to understand their genealogy, others prefer to forget their family history. But these days, knowing one's genealogy can have real advantages, especially medical: knowing your genetic history can help you maintain your health.
Vocabulary lists containing genealogy
It's All in the Family
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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We the People: Gen
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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:
I first met the Westerinen family in 1999 as a graduate student in New York City, writing my thesis on the rise of genetic genealogy.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Applicants must provide official documents - online genealogy sites can't be used as sole proof, the spokesperson cautioned.
From BBC ● May 1, 2026
Working with the FBI, Arlington police had finally solved the crime that summer through genetic genealogy, matching the killer’s DNA to relatives in a public database.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
“But thanks to investigative genetic genealogy, we were able to resolve this mystery and provide some answers to everyone involved in this case.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026
No. He answered his own question aloud, and took from his pocket the heavy pages he had cut from the Bible, all written over with the names of his genealogy.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
Ms. Mazzeo alternates between the macro and micro, now giving us detailed genealogies, now discussing the shipbuilding industry and the place of women in 19th-century society.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
It allowed the Maya to record their own history in stone monuments, including invaluable political histories, descriptions of rituals, propagandistic records of battles, and genealogies.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
And finally, as I worked out by tracing genealogies, when nobody was left alive to remember them, the dead person turned into a butterfly, a memory without a rememberer.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 5, 2023
The whole movie was a visual feast, with bright costumes and playful dance numbers, and it never explained the puzzling genealogies of its characters.
From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2020
Their respective genealogies also created temperamental and stylistic contrasts.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
