posterity

American  

[po-ster-i-tee] / pɒˈstɛr ɪ ti /

noun

posterities plural

1. succeeding or future generations collectively.

   Judgment of this age must be left to posterity.

2. all descendants of one person.

   His fortune was gradually dissipated by his posterity.

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posterity British  

/ pɒˈstɛrɪtɪ /

noun

1. future or succeeding generations

2. all of one's descendants

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• posterities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of posterity

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English posterite, from Old French postérité, from Latin posteritāt-, stem of posteritās, noun derivative of posterus “coming after”; see posterior, -ity

Explanation

Posterity is a noun meaning "future generations." These people of the future could be your children and great-great grandchildren, or any people who are born after you. If you save something "for posterity," you're hoping that years later people will appreciate it, like a time capsule you bury in the yard. The word comes from the Latin word for "post, after." It's also related to the word posterior, which means "behind, to come after in time." In legal terms, posterity refers to the offspring of a person and it often has to do with inheriting property and who is entitled to do so.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

posterity posterities

And for posterity, his “Experimental Telephone” can be found at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American as an artifact of American enterprise.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026

Videos on social media and YouTube show people tagging empty storefronts, skateboarding or riding bicycles indoors and urban explorers touring the abandoned spaces for posterity or to look for signs of paranormal activity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2026

“It gives us a sense of how Elizabethans recorded music for posterity; how they could relive a musical experience.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

But praise was poured upon the humble pint's place in the nation's history, cultural life and language, and the government moved to ensure the measurement was preserved for posterity.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025

When he left for the toilets I decided it would be best to take a stack of the passes for posterity.

From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys

BUT Love has more to do with his own possible and probable posterities, than with the once living but now impossible ancestries in the past.

From Pierre; or The Ambiguities by Melville, Herman

Shakespeare's ghost has seen two or three posterities, beautifully at odds.

From A Book of Prefaces by Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)

Reading one day of the many conquests of England, he bethought himselfe how he might keepe it hereafter from the like conquests, and so make himselfe famous hereafter to all posterities.

From Witch, Warlock, and Magician Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland by Adams, W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport)

Friar Bacon reading one day of the many conquests of England, bethought himself how he might keep it hereafter from the like conquests, and to make himself famous hereafter to all posterities.

From Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies Volume I by Anonymous

He asked indignantly how the House of Lords could expect the Commons to give their concurrence to a measure "by which they and their posterities are to be excluded from the Peerage."

From A History of the Four Georges, Volume I by McCarthy, Justin