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:
However, the “Love Story” forebear that matters most in this discussion is not John F. Kennedy or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, played here by “Feud” star Naomi Watts.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2026
When he retired after the 1953 season, Leahy had the second-best record in the history of college football, trailing only Knute Rockne, his forebear at Notre Dame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 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
He told Ugen he was "married to the movement" and his forebears had fought against China.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
The family’s roots sprang from enslaved forebears, including Willie Rosenthal, whose dozen children and grandchildren rose from the Central Louisiana bayous to attain social and professional prominence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 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
With this new project we can learn a great deal about our early prehistoric forebears, about how they lived and what their worlds looked like.
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
This was what must have happened with the forebears of Mami and Baby, because they were part of a unique population that had been here when the lake was created.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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.
