ancestor
Syllables: an·ces·torUK/ˈæn.sɛs.tə//ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/
ancestor noun: one from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather; a forebear.
Noun
ancestor (plural ancestors)
- One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather; a forebear.
- Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2023
- Synonyms:
- forebear, fore-elder, forefather
- An earlier type; a progenitor.
- This fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse.
- Some of the descendants of this cyclopean ancestor left their burrows and started to swim.2026 February 23, Carl Zimmer, “The Rise of Eyes Began With Just One. Even Charles Darwin was puzzled by the evolution of the vertebrate eye. New research suggests that it traces back to a cyclopean...
- One from whom an estate has descended;—the correlative of heir.
- One who had the same role or function in former times.
- The Magpies are unbeaten and enjoying their best run since 1994, although few would have thought the class of 2011 would come close to emulating their ancestors.2011 October 1, Saj Chowdhury, “Wolverhampton 1-2 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2024
- Synonyms:
- predecessor
- A word or phrase which serves as the origin of a term in another language.
Verb
ancestor (third-person singular simple present ancestors, present participle ancestoring, simple past and past participle ancestored)
- To be an ancestor of.
- Her own grandfather had been a Virginian, a descendant of Pocahontas, of course, Pocahontas having been created by Divine Providence for the specific purpose of ancestoring Virginians.1920, Marie Conway Oemler, The Purple Heights, page 9
- But he could have completed it: Lucas Quintus Carothers McCaslin Beauchamp. Last surviving sone and child of Tomey's Terrel and Tennie Beauchamp. March 17, 1874 except that there was no need: not Lucius Quintus &c &c &c, but Lucas Quintus, not refusing to be called Lucius, because he simply...1942, William Faulkner, “The Bear”, in Go down, Moses: and other stories, page 281
ancestor meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
ancestor in Hindi
- one from whom a person is descended
- पूर्वज pūrvaj
- an earlier type
- पूर्ववर्ती pūrvavartī
ancestor in Tamil
- முன்னோர், மூதாதையர், குலமுதல்வர்
ancestor in Marathi
- one from whom a person is descended
- पूर्वज pūrvaj
ancestor in Urdu
- an ancestor, predecessor
- پوروج pūrvaj
- ancestor; forefather
- بزرگ buzurg
- ancestor
- پرکھ purukh
More languagesFewer languages
- ancestor in Bengali
- পূর্বপুরুষ purbopuruś
- ancestor in Telugu
- పెద్ద pedda
- ancestor in Malayalam
- പിതാമഹൻ, കുലപുരുഷൻ, പൂർവ്വികന്മാർ
- ancestor in Kannada
- ಕುಡಿಪಳೆಯ, ಪೂರ್ವಜ, ಪೂರ್ವಿಕ, ಹಿರಿಯ
- ancestor in Punjabi
- ਵਡੇਰਾ vaḍerā, وڈیرا vaḍerā
- ancestor in Gujarati
- વડીલ vaḍīl
- ancestor in Sinhala
- මුතුන් මිත්තෝ mutun mittō
- ancestor in Arabic
- سَلَف salaf
- ancestor in Malay
- nenek moyang, leluhur
- ancestor in Indonesian
- leluhur, moyang
- ancestor in Persian
- نیا niyā, پیشینیان pīšīniyān
- ancestor in Thai
- บรรพบุรุษ ban-pá-bù-rùt, บรรพชน, ต้นตระกูล, บรรพสตรี
- ancestor in Vietnamese
- tổ tiên
Examples of ancestor in a sentence
- Tigers and lions share a common ancestor from a few million years ago.
- The wild red oat is thought to be the ancestor of modern food oats.
- A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognizable to their ancestors?
Synonyms of ancestor
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of ancestor
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ancestors |
| alternative form (obsolete) | ancestour |
| alternative form (obsolete) | auncestor |
| alternative form (obsolete) | auncestour |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ancestors |
| present participle | ancestoring |
| past participle | ancestored |
| past | ancestored |
Origin of ancestor
From Middle English ancestre, auncestre, ancessour; the first forms from Old French ancestre (modern French ancêtre), from the Latin nominative antecessor (“one who goes before”); the last form from Old French ancessor, from Latin antecessōrem, accusative of antecessor, from antecēdō (“to go before”) + -tor (“-er”), from ante- (“before”) + cēdō (“to go”). See cede, and compare with antecessor.
Words formed from ancestor
Phrases with ancestor
Questions about ancestor
- What does ancestor mean?
- Ancestor means one from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather; a forebear.
- What is ancestor in Hindi?
- Ancestor in Hindi is पूर्वज (pūrvaj), पूर्ववर्ती (pūrvavartī). See Ancestor meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ancestor?
- Ancestor can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ancestor?
- Ancestor is pronounced /ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of ancestor?
- The plural of ancestor is ancestors.
Words near ancestor in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ancestor (page history and authors); ancestor (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); بزرگ (Urdu) (page history and authors); পূর্বপুরুষ (Bengali) (page history and authors); పెద్ద (Telugu) (page history and authors); ancestor (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ancestor (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); وڈیرا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); વડીલ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ancestor.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ancestor.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ancestor. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.