forebear

play

noun fore·bear \ ˈfȯr-ˌber \

variants: or less commonly forbear

Definition of forebear

:ancestor, forefather; also :precursor —usually used in plural

His forebears fought in the American Civil War.

See forebear defined for English-language learners

See forebear defined for kids

forebear was our Word of the Day on 06/17/2011. Hear the podcast!

Examples of forebear in a Sentence

His forebears fought in the American Civil War.
his forebears came to America on the Mayflower

Recent Examples of forebear from the Web

Curt Cook's maternal forebears started Haskins Farm in Bainbridge four years before the official start of what is now the Great Geauga County Fair.

— plain dealer staff, cleveland.com, "Comment here on cleveland.com immigration and deportation stories for Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017," 27 Aug. 2017
Record: 106-45, .702; won World Series These Bronx Bombers may have been even more fearsome than their '27 forebears.

— SI.com, "1939 New York Yankees," 24 Aug. 2017
For starters, White counts among his family forebears early jazz musicians such as bassist Papa John Joseph, clarinetist Willie Joseph and reedist Earl Fouche.

— howard reich, chicagotribune.com, "Clarinetist Dr. Michael White's rebirth after Hurricane Katrina," 22 Aug. 2017
Think of Jeff Sessions, as virulent a racist as his Southern forebears, making sure any sanctuary city gets starved for funding.

— drew magary, GQ, "When Hate Is Your Life's Work," 14 Aug. 2017
Overall, Uganda’s coffee farming practices have not advanced much since the time of Massa’s forebears, and farming incomes have stagnated among the lowest levels in Africa.

— jonathan torgovnik, National Geographic, "A Drying Climate Threatens Africa’s Coffee, But Hope Remains," 2 Aug. 2017
The group was founded in 1868 by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, a Parsi—a member of a small but commercially adept community whose Zoroastrian forebears fled Persia to escape religious persecution in the eighth century.

— clay chandler, Fortune, "How Tata’s New Chairman Plans to Fix India’s Biggest Company," 21 July 2017
But modern capitalist societies may have something to learn from the ways of their ancient forebears.

— The Economist, "Living off the land," 20 July 2017
Modern liberalism draws much of its strength from younger Americans — Millennials who are more irreligious than their forebears.

— jeff cimmino, National Review, "Sanders, Ossoff, and the Hopeless Dream of a Religious Left," 13 July 2017

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

Did You Know?

Forebear (also sometimes spelled "forbear") was first used by our ancestors in the days of Middle English. Fore- means "coming before," just as in "forefather," and -bear means "one that is" (not to be confused with the "-bear" in the unrelated verb "forbear," which comes from Old English beran, meaning "to bear or carry"). The "be-" of "-bear" is from the verb "to be" (or, more specifically, from "been," an old dialect variant of "be"). The "-ar" is a form of the suffix -er, which we append to verbs to denote one that performs a specified action. In this case the "action" is simply existing or being - in other words, "-bear" implies one who is a "be-er."