forebear
Americannoun
-
forebears
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of forebear
1425–75; Middle English (Scots), equivalent to fore- fore- + -bear “being,” variant of beer; see be, -er 1
Explanation
Your father, grandmother, and great grandfather are all your forebears. A forebear is an ancestor, or someone you are descended from. You might have thought that forebear means to stop yourself from doing something. The word you are thinking of is forbear. Confused? The "e" makes all of the difference here. Whereas the first is a noun, the second is a verb. Just remember that if you see fore like in before, it's the people who came before you.
Vocabulary lists containing forebear
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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:
That forebear was a 1961 pop-up where the artist made and sold his own rough-hewn goods.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
But the sitcom’s true progenitor is “The Golden Girls,” which is also the spiritual forebear to “Sex and the City.”
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
Named for its Star Trek forebear, Holodeck generates a virtually limitless range of indoor environments, using AI to interpret users' requests.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 11, 2024
At the moment, none of the new hominins is convincing as a direct forebear of Homo.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 3, 2024
“Get on the forebear before you embarrass yourself further.”
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
The story has elements similar to popular summer blockbusters, but they’re so finely remixed and retooled that they don’t bear such exhausting resemblance to their forebears.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
He told Ugen he was "married to the movement" and his forebears had fought against China.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
On view at LACMA, David Hockney’s ‘Seven Yorkshire Landscape Videos’ travels country roads, recording the scene in ways that echo artistic forebears.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
The state was home to some of the forebears of Hindu nationalism, including the first president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the BJP.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
It told our forebears whether to run when they saw a lion or perk up at the sound of a bird that might be food.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
