Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person from whom one is descended, especially if more remote than a grandparent; a forebear.
- n. A forerunner or predecessor.
- n. Law The person from whom an estate has been inherited.
- n. Biology The actual or hypothetical organism or stock from which later kinds evolved.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One from whom a person is descended in the line of either father or mother; a forefather; a progenitor.
- n. In law, one, whether a progenitor or a collateral relative, who has preceded another in the course of inheritance; one from whom an inheritance is derived: the correlative of heir: sometimes used specifically of the immediate progenitor.
- n. In biology, according to the theory of evolution, the hypothetical form or stock, of an earlier and presumably lower type, from which any organized being is inferred to have been directly or indirectly developed.
Wiktionary
- n. 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.
- n. An earlier type; a progenitor
- n. law One from whom an estate has descended;—the correlative of heir.
- n. figuratively One who had the same role or function in former times.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a fore father.
- n. (Biol.) An earlier type; a progenitor.
- n. (Law) One from whom an estate has descended; -- the correlative of
heir .
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
Etymologies
- 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 accusative antecessorem, from antecedo ("to go before"); ante ("before") + cedo ("to go"). See cede, and compare with antecessor. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English auncestre, from Old French, from Latin antecessor, predecessor, from antecessus, past participle of antecēdere, to precede : ante-, ante- + cēdere, to go; see ked- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But the term ancestor - worship seems to me much too confined for the religion which pays reverence not only to those ancient gods believed to be the fathers of the Japanese race, but likewise to a host of deified sovereigns, heroes, princes, and illustrious men.”
“He talks with Jenna about his ancestor from the 1800′s, Jonathon Gilbert, and how he did all of this writing about demons and people being slaughtered.”
“Meanwhile Black Jack Randall, her husband's ancestor is likewise extremely suspicious of this English woman who popped up out of nowhere on his turf, so to speak.”
“That humans and other organisms share a common ancestor is one of the most profound findings of biology — unifying and explaining a vast array of data.”
“Note that the ancestor is related to itself, so it is also included in the set.”
“That humans and other organisms share a common ancestor is one of the most profound findings of biology — unifying and explaining a vast array of data. nullasalus: If I recall right, [Margulis] asserts NS certainly exists, but it's not a source of "novelty".”
“The reason Woese et al. do not link the cellular architectures of the domains to a common cellular ancestor is they do not believe it is biologically possible to do so.”
“But even though we can say belief in ancestor spirit forces represents a religious continuity, the way people conceptualized those who had departed varied over time.”
“Before Francezzo realizes what a bad guy his ancestor is, the fellow tries to convince him to stay in Hell and help with a project that the ancestor is involved in.”
“[Link] Raul N. Longoria includes Eva on his Longoria genealogy website, which shows she is the great-great-granddaughter of Ponciano Longoria — born about 1852, and "probably the first 'American' born ancestor from the Longoria branch.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ancestor’.
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Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
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Dramatic Nouns
Nouns to be used as descriptions while writing stories
night owl, early bird, hedonist, ascetic, derelict, explorer, radical, pity friend, cupid, truant, caretaker, guardian and 120 more...
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SCIE - graph theory
antiparallel, convex polyhedron, nonadjacent, acyclic, isomorphic, vertex, graph, planar, homomorphism, factorization, adjacency, disjoint and 423 more...
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Grade 4
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancrstor, ancestor, annual, apparent, appropriate, arena, arrest and 29 more...
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Originventory
Beformitables; previousness, past-referents, and origins.
erstwhile, formication, quondam, atavistic, umquhile, yestreen, hesternal, hesternopothia, pridian, ere, retrophilia, ante mortem and 72 more...
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reginaterra's Words
purl, blow, squish, andean, generality, adaptation, lush, pack, filter, acquiesce, abstraction, sweet and 508 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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GRE
Taisha GRE Bible
archaic, archetype, archipelago, architect, archive, arctic, ardor, arduous, argot, arid, armory, arrest and 289 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Joey Grade 4
address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, accurate, annual, apparent
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Facade
civilization, illumination, clone, danger, enigma, garden, green, healer, laugh, lord, pledge, poem and 122 more...
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Wordlist-1
Important words
atrabilious, allege, anxiety, architecture, ambitious, anxiously, albeit, accommodate, anonymity, amateur, apprehension, aire and 130 more...
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TT2 Lesson 18
Nevada, basin, faraway, inland, onto, rocky, peak, period, seafloor, prehistoric, historic, history and 77 more...
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Jennifer's LIST
accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, appropriate, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend and 28 more...
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Christmas Pageant Chapter Five
Vocabulary for Chapter Five of the Best Christmas Pageant Ever
myrrh, stable, retire, honor, sly, antenna, bureau, vengeance, ancestor, villian, horrible, carpenter
Tweets
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