descend from
phrasal verb
descended from; descending from; descends from
: to have (something or someone in the past) as an origin or source
Recent evidence supports the theory that birds descended from dinosaurs.
The plants descend from a common ancestor.
They claim to be descended from a noble British family.
Examples of descend from in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
However, there has never been a male emperor descended from a female line, as their lack of descent from a male emperor would have been seen as illegitimate.
—
Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 8 June 2025
The entire population of red wolves, both wild and captive, descends from merely 14 founders of the captive breeding program.
—Alex Erwin, The Conversation, 6 June 2025
Domestic cats descend from desert-dwelling ancestors who rarely encountered large bodies of water.
—Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 June 2025
Modern Europeans descend from three main ancestral populations: hunter-gatherers who colonized the continent by around 40,000 years ago, early farmers from Anatolia who came into Europe about 8,500 years ago, and pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe who arrived around 5,000 years ago.
—Kermit Pattison, Scientific American, 20 May 2025
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Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 8 June 2025
The entire population of red wolves, both wild and captive, descends from merely 14 founders of the captive breeding program.
—Alex Erwin, The Conversation, 6 June 2025
Domestic cats descend from desert-dwelling ancestors who rarely encountered large bodies of water.
—Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 June 2025
Modern Europeans descend from three main ancestral populations: hunter-gatherers who colonized the continent by around 40,000 years ago, early farmers from Anatolia who came into Europe about 8,500 years ago, and pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe who arrived around 5,000 years ago.
—Kermit Pattison, Scientific American, 20 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for descend from
Cite this Entry
“Descend from.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/descend%20from. Accessed 13 Jun. 2025.
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