ANCESTORS Synonyms: 57 Similar and Opposite Words

ancestors

noun

plural of ancestor

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

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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

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of ancestors At some point in the mid-1850s, the river Padma suddenly carved a new path through the village of his ancestors in modern-day Bangladesh, flooding their homes and scattering them across the Indian subcontinent. — Robert Rubsam, The Atlantic, 20 July 2026 All across the United States, federal soldiers rounded up our Native American ancestors like cattle, pushing them into prison camps, many of which later became reservations. — Literary Hub, 20 July 2026 Vicuñas, Peru’s national animal, are wild relatives of the llama and are believed to be the ancestors of modern alpacas. — Susmita Baral, Travel + Leisure, 17 July 2026 Built by one of Sommer’s ancestors in 1834, the house has remained in her family ever since. — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 17 July 2026 People offered explanations for how their ancestors used the artifacts. — Los Angeles Times, 16 July 2026 Each family has developed its own strategies for explaining and remembering their ancestors' actions in 1898. — CBS News, 12 July 2026 That’s because the term ancestral diet is more of a general one, applying to any diet that is supposed to mimic the diet of our human ancestors. — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes.com, 10 July 2026 However, when her island's resources are threatened, Moana embraces her ancestors' voyaging heritage and heads out to sea to find Maui, deliver the heart of Te Fiti (which Maui stole back in the day) and save her people. — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 9 July 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for ancestors

Noun

Sorrell, whose grandfathers both played in the majors, slugged 23 home runs and 20 doubles in 56 games while drawing 33 walks and striking out 61 times.

— Meghan Montemurro, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2026
Growing up in Syracuse, Shattuck watched his great-grandfather and both grandfathers getting their suits made at Frank and Carl Cesta’s shop.

— jeanne malle, Air Mail, 4 July 2026

Definition of grandfathers

Noun

Even the Hammurabi Code, a set of laws created by the sixth Babylonian king in approximately 1760 bce, established forerunners of today’s interest rate and minimum wage laws.

— Chris Roush, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Apr. 2026
The Norwegian ended his season before the Olympics to further recover from a shoulder injury, but attended the finals as one of the forerunners, who test a course shortly before a race starts.

— ABC News, ABC News, 22 Mar. 2026

Definition of forerunners

Noun

Video shared by the nonprofit captures dozens of dads participating in library outings over the past year, with children laughing, dancing and gathering for storytime alongside their fathers.

— Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 22 July 2026
Career penalties for fathers can be applied to hybrid work, where remote work arrangements are often associated with mothers and caring, with stigma leading to lower uptake.

— Melissa A. Wheeler, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026

Definition of fathers

Noun

Laboratory demonstrations have already shown production pathways for lubricant precursors, munition components, active pharmaceutical ingredients, bioplastics, and single-cell proteins.

— Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 24 July 2026
In this study, published last month in Science, researchers found that as mice got close to the end of their pregnancies, placental levels of NAD+ and its precursors dropped off fast.

— Maggie Ryan, Flow Space, 20 July 2026

Definition of precursors

Noun

Burnham is trying to do things differently, but whether that will be enough to avoid the same forces which have claimed his last six predecessors is not yet clear.

— Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 20 July 2026
Andy Burnham will become the UK prime minister today, facing the same list of economic and political problems that undermined several predecessors.

— Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 20 July 2026

Definition of predecessors

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ancestor

ancestors

ancestral

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“Ancestors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ancestors. Accessed 25 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of ancestors

noun

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