- a person in your family who lived a long time ago synonym forebear
- His ancestors had come to America from Ireland.
WordfinderExtra ExamplesTopics Family and relationshipsb2, Historyb2- He can trace his ancestors back to the reign of Elizabeth I.
- He claims as his literary ancestors such giants as Henry James and William Faulkner.
- Our earliest ancestors lived in a world fraught with danger.
- The Romans built these monuments to glorify their illustrious ancestors.
- The builder of the house was a direct ancestor of the present owner.
- The two species share a common ancestor.
- They honour/honor their ancestors and believe in the spirits of nature.
- a distant ancestor of mine
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- direct
- immediate
- ancient
- …
- be descended from
- have
- share
- …
- an animal that lived in the past that a modern animal has developed from
- a reptile that was the common ancestor of lizards and turtles
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- direct
- immediate
- ancient
- …
- be descended from
- have
- share
- …
- an early form of a machine that later became more developed synonym forerunner
- The ancestor of the modern bicycle was called a penny-farthing.
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French ancestre, from Latin antecessor, from antecedere, from ante ‘before’ + cedere ‘go’.
Check pronunciation:
ancestor