Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Future generations: "Everything he writes is consigned to posterity” ( Joyce Carol Oates).
- n. All of a person's descendants.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Descendants collectively; the race that proceeds from a progenitor.
- n. Succeeding generations collectively.
- n. Posteriority.
- n. Synonyms Issue, Progeny, etc. See offspring.
Wiktionary
- n. All the future generations, especially the descendants of a specific person.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The race that proceeds from a progenitor; offspring to the furthest generation; the aggregate number of persons who are descended from an ancestor of a generation; descendants; -- contrasted with
ancestry . - n. Succeeding generations; future times.
WordNet 3.0
- n. all of the offspring of a given progenitor
- n. all future generations
Etymologies
- Late 14th century, from Middle French posterité, from Latin posteritas, from posterus ("following, coming after"), from post ("after") (English post-). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English posterite, from Old French, from Latin posteritās, from posterus, coming after; see posterior. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“After all, what we term posterity is but a drop of water in the ocean of Time.”
“Further, to think of organizing these papers for the sake of posterity is to think of posterity, which is the same as thinking of dying, which is different from vanity but equally unpleasant.”
My “Papers” : Kwame Dawes : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“And the news business, which once took pride in what it put down for posterity, is all atwitter with tweets and insta-posts by self-appointed experts on a bazillion blogs.”
“Her message translated as "that you should have a delightful day with your children and dearest friends, that it should be a day worthy of remembering in posterity, full of happiness, tenderness, and special memories.”
“Creating photographic records for posterity is not new for Highsmith.”
“But how does the Cottesloe family feel about the loss of its foothold in posterity?”
The Guardian: Dorfman or Cottesloe? Does it matter what a theatre is called?
“Any writer writing for posterity is kidding him or herself.”
““Thy Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam;” and the commentators say that Allah stroked”
“Alldas. de, a site that mirrors defaced websites for posterity, is shutting down.”
“God shall enlarge Japheth -- pointing to a vast increase in posterity and possessions.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘posterity’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
Naresh_Special
portent, organically, malicious, sham, olfactory, vertebrates, protuberance, sensilla, flagitious, pleonastic, exiguous, wayward and 102 more...
-
RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
wrath, leaf, belly, prey, death, break, six, nod, dim, end, inn, judge and 1286 more...
-
Yazhinni Spelling bee
tongue, stallion, scruple, salinity, schedule, rouge, populist, Permian, perspire, pasteurize, multitude, mournful and 227 more...
-
EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, approbation, orator, peroration, Cicero, eloquence, elocution, rhetoric, premeditate, plead, Isocrates and 264 more...
-
March 2012
panache, evanescent, erogenous, vestibule, malfeasance, lacuna, blithering, incubate, breech, tabernacle, pearly, upholstery and 79 more...
-
post-
after in time; following; later
postgraduate, postaxial, postscript, postdoctorate, postclassical, postdate, postcard, post-traumatic, postdoc, posterity, posthumous, postmark and 4 more...
-
GRE
trope, surreptitious, tenet, insular, munificent, exegesis, limpid, acerbic, litany, cupidity, restive, protract and 105 more...
-
Transcendentalism (Thoreau)
A list of words from our Thoreau readings.
simplicity, Aurora, vigor, Memnon, somnolence, servitor, simplify, supernumerary, sentinel, rudiment, Veda, Saint Vitus and 43 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
-
apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
-
Out of Book Words
commiserate, equanimity, dulcet, cursory, diffident, profligate, egregious, precocious, dissemble, aggregate, efficacy, ingenuous and 100 more...
-
Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
-
Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
-
newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
-
ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for posterity.

Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.