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Definition of ancestry noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

ancestry

noun
 
/ˈænsestri/
 
/ˈænsestri/
 [countable, usually singular, uncountable]
(plural ancestries)
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  1. the family or the group of people that you come from
    • to have Scottish ancestry
    • He was able to trace his ancestry back over 1 000 years.
    • people of Japanese ancestry
    Extra Examples
    • Humans share a common ancestry with chimpanzees.
    • His eyes owed their startling blueness to his Irish ancestry.
    • (figurative) The company claims an ancestry going back to 1727.
    Topics Historyc1, Family and relationshipsc1, People in societyc1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • common
    • shared
    • African
    • …
    verb + ancestry
    • claim
    • have
    • share
    • …
    ancestry + verb
    • go back to
    phrases
    • be of Irish, German, etc. ancestry
    See full entry
    Word OriginMiddle English: alteration of Old French ancesserie, from ancestre, from Latin antecessor, from antecedere, from ante ‘before’ + cedere ‘go’.
See ancestry in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee ancestry in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
Check pronunciation: ancestry

Nearby words

halfway
adverb
 
 
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