descendants

Noun

descendant (plural descendants)

1. One of the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.
   • Meronyms: issue, line, progeny; family; clan

   Synonyms:

   afterbear

   Antonyms:

   ancestor, progenitor, forefather, foremother

2. (figuratively) A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
   • This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.
3. A later evolutionary type.
   • Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
4. A language that is descended from another.
   • English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
5. A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
   • The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.1993, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ē-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi, Reiner Lipp, editors, Comparative-Historical Linguistics, John Benjamins...

   Synonyms:

   reflex, derivative

   Antonyms:

   etymon

6. The intersection of the western (setting) horizon and the ecliptic, its ecliptical longitude; the astrological sign it corresponds to.

See all 9 meanings of descendant