forefather
/ˈfɔːˌfɑːðə/US/ˈfɔɹˌfɑːðɚ/
forefather noun: an ancestor.
Noun
forefather (plural forefathers)
- An ancestor.
- His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill; an only brother at Montauk Point having sickened in the...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter II, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
- A cultural ancestor; one who originated an idea or tradition.
forefather meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
forefather in Hindi
- ancestor
- पूर्वज pūrvaj
forefather in Tamil
- முன்னோர்கள், மூதாதையர்
forefather in Urdu
- forefather
- پردادا pardādā
forefather in Malayalam
- ancestor, forebear, antecedent
- പൂർവ്വികൻ, പിതാവ്, പിതാമഹൻ, പിതൃപിതാവ്, പൂർവ്വൻ, മുൻഗാമി
More languagesFewer languages
- forefather in Kannada
- ಹಿರೀಕ, ಪೂರ್ವಜ, ಪೂರ್ವಿಕ, ಹಿರಿಯ
Examples of forefather in a sentence
- Not every forefather of mine rests quiet beneath his escutcheoned marble.
- In the dining-hall hang portraits of my forefathers—in petto, your forefathers-in-law—by many masters.
- Puyas may be defined as sacred written records handed down to posterity by the forefathers of the Meiteis.
Forms of forefather
| plural | forefathers |
|---|
Origin of forefather
From Middle English forefader, forfader, vorvader, from Old English forefæder (“forefather”), but possibly also merged with Old Norse forfaðir. Equivalent to fore- + father. Compare Dutch voorvader (“forefather”), German Vorvater, Vorfahr (“forefather”), Danish forfader (“forefather”), Swedish förfader (“forefather”).
Words formed from forefather
Questions about forefather
- What does forefather mean?
- Forefather means an ancestor.
- What is forefather in Hindi?
- Forefather in Hindi is पूर्वज (pūrvaj). See Forefather meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is forefather?
- Forefather is a noun.
- How do you pronounce forefather?
- Forefather is pronounced /ˈfɔːˌfɑːðə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of forefather?
- The plural of forefather is forefathers.
Words near forefather in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forefather (page history and authors); forefather (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پردادا (Urdu) (page history and authors); forefather (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); forefather (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-forefather.wav.
Cite this entry: “forefather.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forefather. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.