the ancients

plural noun

: the people who lived in ancient times : the people of ancient Greece and Rome

a temple built by the ancients

the gods of the ancients

Examples of the ancients in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

From the beginning, alongside the rules for building in the style of the ancients, Renaissance architects set forth rules for transgressing them. —Mario Carpo, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2025

Later on in the week, the first appearance of a hairline sliver of a crescent moon appearing low in our western twilight sky is a sky signal by which the ancients set their calendars. —Joe Rao, Space.com, 31 Jan. 2025

Falling in love felt so powerful that the ancients thought seeing the love object caused a wound in your eyes. —Shadi Bartsch, The Mercury News, 3 Jan. 2025

The item in question was a 1,000-year-old astrolabe, a tool designed by the ancients for celestial navigation, telling time and reading horoscopes. —Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Mar. 2024

That healing facilities would be located next to cult sites is a reflection of how faith and medicine were intertwined in the minds of the ancients, explains Caldwell. —Elizabeth Heath, Discover Magazine, 17 Feb. 2024

Judging from tribal stories and archaeological findings, the ancients were ingenious in their ability to survive in this parched desert landscape. —Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2022

Majanga and his fellow guides are torchbearers for the ancients, the modern-day storytellers of Tsodilo Hills. —Chadd Scott, Forbes, 1 June 2022

There's a comfort and a peculiar beauty in that, stretching across the centuries from the ancients to our own times. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 5 May 2022