genealogy
Americannoun
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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:
In recent years, when a new break in a cold case makes headlines, it’s often because of updated genealogy tools or forensic detection technology.
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
“We’re not done. We’ve got a lot more in front of us,” he said, including testing the DNA against genealogy sites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
John said TV programmes and genealogy companies "drive this theory that every outcome is good, that you'll find war heroes... or a suffragette, but lots of people don't."
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2025
Like family genealogy, such an explanation would fall under Handsome’s Inconsequential and Boring Bits category.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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
What Mesoamerican civilization created a complex writing system for recording its history 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
She also sought out the children of Alegría Busbib Bengio, a prominent figure in the city’s Jewish community, who spent the last years of her life handwriting family genealogies and making dresses.
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2022
They took turns reciting Homeric genealogies, full of falsifications and borrowings from real life, and sometimes they fought over this or that favorite real uncle or aunt, and had to bargain like casting directors.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
