descendant

adjective de·scen·dant \ di-ˈsen-dənt \

variants: or less commonly descendent

Updated on: 21 Apr 2018

Definition of descendant

1 : moving or directed downward

listed in descendant order

2 : proceeding from an ancestor or source

See descendant defined for kids

Examples of descendant in a Sentence

the descendant branches of a weeping willow

Recent Examples of descendant from the Web

Today, local representatives from descendant communities visit the site twice a year and help guide the research.

— jon hurdle, New York Times, "Ruined ‘Apartments’ May Hold Clues to Native American History," 4 Sep. 2017
The group was made up of friends of Ariana Rockefeller, the descendant grand-niece of the property's founder.

— avril graham, Harper's BAZAAR, "Just Back From...A Long Weekend in Puerto Rico," 8 May 2017
A descendant sapling from a tree planted by children who were killed during the Holocaust was planted at Niles West High School Thursday, April 27, in honor of Arbor Day.

— mike isaacs, chicagotribune.com, "Arbor Day: Sapling from tree grown during Holocaust planted at Niles West," 28 Apr. 2017
Protesters also poured into the streets of several cities in Chocó, the blackest department (comparable to a U.S. state), with an 80 percent African-descendant population.

— lori s. robinson, The Root, "Fighting for Black Lives in Colombia: At War’s End, the Search for a Seat at the Table," 3 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'descendant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Descendant is the opposite of ancestor. Your grandparents' descendants are those who are descended from them—your parents, your brothers and sisters, and any children that any of you may have. It's been claimed that every person on earth is a descendant of Muhammad, and of every historical person before him—Julius Caesar, the Buddha, etc.—who started a line of descent. (Some of us still find this hard to believe.) And not all descendants are human; every modern thesaurus, for example, could be called the descendant of the one devised by Peter Mark Roget in 1852.

Origin and Etymology of descendant

Middle English dessendaunte, from Anglo-French descendant, from Latin descendent-, descendens, present participle of descendere — see descend

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

See Words from the same year

descendant Synonyms

Other Biology Terms

autochthonous, fecund, homunculus, phylogeny, substrate

descendant

noun

variants: or less commonly descendent

Definition of descendant

1 : one originating or coming from an ancestral stock or source : one descended from another

descendants of King David

a descendant of an ancient grass

2 : one deriving directly from a precursor or prototype

Italian and other descendants of Latin

See descendant defined for English-language learners

Examples of descendant in a Sentence

One of the famous inventor's descendants is also an inventor.
Many people in this area are descendants of German immigrants.
Recent evidence supports the theory that birds are the modern descendants of dinosaurs.
The Italian language is one of Latin's descendants.

Recent Examples of descendant from the Web

The Superior Court of New Hanover negotiated a sale price with the Freeman descendants, according to the newspaper.

— ryan gaydos, Fox News, "North Carolina court writes cop-killer Assata Shakur $15G check as land deal compensation," 16 Apr. 2018
Weaving fictional characters into history, the novel begins in Spain during the Inquisition and wends its way to a contemporary New Mexico village populated by the refugees’ descendants.

— monitor staff, The Christian Science Monitor, "10 best books of April: the Monitor's picks," 9 Apr. 2018
About 70 percent of residents in Gaza are refugees or the descendants of those displaced from towns and villages now in Israel.

— loveday morris, Washington Post, "Burning tires, tear gas and live fire: Gaza clashes turn deadly," 6 Apr. 2018
The latter is worth remembering because the ideological (and in some cases, biological) descendants of those who hated him now tend to view him as a race-neutral, quasi-conservative.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "DI Politics Chat: What Do We Forget About MLK?," 4 Apr. 2018
The Sackler family who currently owns Purdue Pharma includes the descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, but not those of their brother Arthur Sackler.

— nan goldin, Time, "Nan Goldin: I've Turned My Opioid Addiction Into Activism," 23 Feb. 2018
Meanwhile, unmanned small space probes—the 22nd century descendants of Voyager and New Horizons—will travel even deeper into our universe, reaching as far as the Alpha Centauri.

— matt blitz, Popular Mechanics, "The Future Machines of the Year 2100," 16 Feb. 2018
As the descendant of Lebanese and Korean immigrants, Koh is running on a platform to preserve the American Dream.

— nadya okamoto, Teen Vogue, "4 Asian-American Politicians You Need to Know About," 16 Feb. 2018
The historic Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is seeking the descendants of its original employees and shareholders, the builders of the Model T and other iconic early American cars, for its Piquette Heritage Day reunion on April 8.

— Detroit Free Press, "Ford's Piquette Plant museum seeks descendants of original workers," 15 Feb. 2018

Origin and Etymology of descendant

French & Latin; French descendant, from Late Latin descendent-, descendens, from Latin

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1569

See Words from the same year

Other Genetics Terms

chimera, hermaphrodite, plasticity

DESCENDANT Defined for English Language Learners

descendant

noun

Definition of descendant for English Language Learners

: someone who is related to a person or group of people who lived in the past
: a plant or animal that is related to a particular plant or animal that lived long ago
: something that developed from another thing that was made or existed earlier