as in grandmother
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Recent Examples of ancestress
Meanwhile, Alice, Dana’s ancestress, never becomes much more than a moral quandary: a stubborn victim who is unable to adapt.
—
Julian Lucas,
The New Yorker,
8 Mar. 2021
Yang Asha is the mythical ancestress of the Miao people, an ethnic minority in China closely related to the Hmong of Southeast Asia.
—
Keith Bradsher,
New York Times,
26 Nov. 2020
His own mother, aged ninety, who remembered her aunt, had been able to share stories of their ancestress with the grandchildren who’d had no idea, before now, what their background might be.
—
Susan Choi,
Harper's magazine,
6 Jan. 2020
Enshrined at Kashikodokoro is the sun goddess Amaterasu, the mythological ancestress of Japan’s emperors.
—
Washington Post,
22 Oct. 2019
Enshrined at Kashikodokoro is the sun goddess Amaterasu, the mythological ancestress of Japan's emperors.
—
NBC News,
22 Oct. 2019
The intersection of these two facts does convince me that William's genealogical ancestress, Eliza Kewark, did have South Asian ancestry (not totally surprising even in notionally ethnically distinct groups like Armenians or Parsis who have been long resident in India).
—
Razib Khan,
Discover Magazine,
14 June 2013
Julian Lucas,
The New Yorker,
8 Mar. 2021
Yang Asha is the mythical ancestress of the Miao people, an ethnic minority in China closely related to the Hmong of Southeast Asia.
—
Keith Bradsher,
New York Times,
26 Nov. 2020
His own mother, aged ninety, who remembered her aunt, had been able to share stories of their ancestress with the grandchildren who’d had no idea, before now, what their background might be.
—
Susan Choi,
Harper's magazine,
6 Jan. 2020
Enshrined at Kashikodokoro is the sun goddess Amaterasu, the mythological ancestress of Japan’s emperors.
—
Washington Post,
22 Oct. 2019
Enshrined at Kashikodokoro is the sun goddess Amaterasu, the mythological ancestress of Japan's emperors.
—
NBC News,
22 Oct. 2019
The intersection of these two facts does convince me that William's genealogical ancestress, Eliza Kewark, did have South Asian ancestry (not totally surprising even in notionally ethnically distinct groups like Armenians or Parsis who have been long resident in India).
—
Razib Khan,
Discover Magazine,
14 June 2013
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ancestress
Noun
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Campos said her 44-year-old mother has asthma, her 9-year-old brother has epilepsy, and her 68-year-old grandmother is battling cancer.
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My grandmother, Hilla Banaji, was deeply religious.
Noun
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The matriarchs who fed the team.
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Many first-generation wealth creators remain reluctant to relinquish control, particularly in Asia, where fortunes are often closely associated with a family patriarch or matriarch.
Noun
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But just because our microbiome differs from our ancestors' doesn't mean reverting to an earlier model is better.
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The range of Pennsylvania Dutch vocabulary reflects the immediate, physical nature of my ancestors’ lives and work.
Noun
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In her account, Richmond indeed emerges as its progenitor—through his theorizing, his behind-the-scenes parliamentary and polemical maneuvering, and his patronage of Thomas Paine.
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Watching their metronomic thriller does more to suggest the arrival of a hyper-sexualized answer to the Coen brothers than the progeny of William Gibson or the progenitors of multiplex psychedelia.
Noun
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Through our hair and its many rituals, remain the herbalism of our foremothers in the new world, passing down their ingenuity of homemade balms, creams, and oils for hair growth.
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In fact, precursors to modern bleaching processes didn’t come on the scene until the turn of the 20th century, leaving our foremothers and forefathers plenty of time to get creative with their blonde pursuits.
Noun
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People grew accustomed to the expectation that each generation would surpass the horizons of their forebears.
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Eight Dukes of Wellington and two very full centuries on from that 1825 procession, on this June 16, the 9th Duke rode, as each of his forbears did and as the future heirs to the ducal title will do, in the lead carriage with the king to open Royal Ascot.
Cite this Entry
“Ancestress.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ancestress. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
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