Synonyms of ancestors

ancestors

noun

plural of ancestor

1

as in grandfathers

a person who is several generations earlier in an individual's line of descent

Bridie's Irish ancestors immigrated to the United States in the 19th century during the Great Potato Famine

Synonyms & Similar Words

• grandfathers
• fathers
• forefathers
• forebears
• grandmothers
• progenitors
• forebearers
• predecessors
• ancestries
• primogenitors
• foremothers
• patriarchs
• matriarchs
• ancestresses
• grandsires
• antecessors
• antecedents
• roots
• sires

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• descendants
• families
• children
• offspring
• issues
• lineages
• seed
• sons
• stocks
• daughters
• heirs
• successors
• progenies
• posterities
• inheritors
• scions

2

as in forerunners

something belonging to an earlier time from which something else was later developed

pinball machines—the ancestors of today's video games—go back to the 19th century

Synonyms & Similar Words

• forerunners
• precursors
• predecessors
• antecedents
• prototypes
• originals
• granddaddies
• archetypes
• originators
• mothers
• daddies
• models
• foregoers
• fathers
• sires

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• descendants
• derivatives
• sons
• daughters
• offshoots
• outgrowths
• by-products
• spin-offs

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of ancestors

The ancestors of today’s trees are some 20,000 times older than the oldest cities. — Jeanna Bryner, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026

That would mean their ancestors had already reached the continent before the split occurred. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 19 Oct. 2026

His great-grandparents have been there for 30 years, and other ancestors, even longer. — Hira Humayun, CNN Money, 18 Oct. 2026

Richard Hockensmith of Antioch was wearing the uniform of an American officer in the Revolutionary War like the ones his ancestors wore in Gurnee. — Steve Sadin, Chicago Tribune, 18 Oct. 2026

My irritation was not with the charge itself but with how some of the commentaries about it invoked as evidence Vance’s wish to be buried in the country graveyard where generations of his ancestors already rest. — Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2026

This wooden crown of the yurt forms its structural foundation and is a key pillar of Kazakh identity, considered a threshold where the spirits of the sky meet those of the family’s ancestors. — Yulia Denisyuk, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Oct. 2026

The changes would have affected the environments in which life developed and evolved, from the age of the dinosaurs through to some of our oldest primate ancestors. — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 13 Oct. 2026

In his view, Flagg Mountain’s fire-scarred stumps corroborate what his community already knew—that their ancestors used fire for centuries—and reinforce their sense of responsibility to care for the land. — M. R. O’Connor, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026