as in grandmother
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
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 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
-
Murillo recalled a Cuban grandmother whose grandchildren were terrified to go to school after their father was detained in front of them at their own home by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
13 Sep. 2025
-
Clover, who is named after one of her grandmother’s famous films, Inside Daisy Clover, had packed her favorite Natalie Wood T-shirt with the star’s portrait, one in a series that Natasha had commissioned a few years back as part of the fragrance product line.—
Liz McNeil,
PEOPLE,
13 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
From there, they are forced to deal with an aging group of matriarchs (June Squibb, Annette O’Toole and Marceline Hugot) who covertly run the town—not to mention the cold and calculating brothel manager Enid (Margo Martindale).—
Travis Bean,
Forbes.com,
13 Sep. 2025
-
Robert and his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) retire to the smaller Dower house, where Robert’s mother Violet (Maggie Smith), the matriarch of the Crawley family, lived.—
Olivia B. Waxman,
Time,
12 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The norm is for ancient dugouts found in southern Florida to be linked to ancestors of the Calusa, the Seminole or the Miccosukee, according to the Florida Division of Historical Resources.—
Mark Price,
Miami Herald,
15 Sep. 2025
-
This provides excellent evidence that all life on Earth shares one common ancestor.—
Thomas Moynihan,
Big Think,
15 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The study concluded that when humans go to space, the aging of their hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, or HSPCs, accelerates.—
Ashley Mackin Solomon,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
9 Sep. 2025
-
This scaffold contains microscopic channels filled with spinal neural progenitor cells, or sNPCs.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
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.—
Eshe Ukweli,
refinery29.com,
7 June 2023
-
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.—
AJ Willingham,
CNN,
28 May 2023
Noun
-
The album only passingly cares about the signature dance-pop gunk of its 2010s and ’20s peers and forebears and doesn’t (like songs by Gomez, Addison Rae, and others) spend much time exploring Lana Del Rey as a subgenre.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
3 Sep. 2025
-
Once upon a time, scholars thought that human evolution was a march of progress in which our forebears evolved in linear fashion from an apelike ancestor to a series of increasingly humanlike forms.—
Kate Wong,
Scientific American,
13 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ancestress.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ancestress. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share