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:
“Dept. of Speculation” by Jenny Offill is a forebear of the short-and-sweet literary canon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
The “Love Story” forebear that matters most in this discussion is not John F. Kennedy or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2026
Maye’s been so persuasive it’s provoking inevitable but treacherous comparisons to Brady, his carbohydrate-shunning forebear, now immortalized in 12 feet of handsome bronze outside the Foxborough gate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 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
Thandiwe placed her forebear on the ground and stepped on it, then looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
Learning about gay rights before Stonewall: It’s LGBTQ+ history month, which means it’s a great moment to learn more about our queer forebears.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
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
While these insolent young men live in a medieval fantasy world of flying beasts, they reflect a very modern obsession with a younger generation that can’t live up to the precedent set by their forebears.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
