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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Even though her grandmother hadn't needed a stem cell transplant, seeing her struggle with illness and undergo chemotherapy was a life-changing experience for Coiro.—
Wendy Grossman Kantor,
PEOPLE,
6 Oct. 2025
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Not long afterward, his grandmother, who had helped raised him, called me.—
Jennifer Gonnerman,
New Yorker,
6 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In the musical, Levy portrays Mother, the matriarch of a wealthy white family, who discovers her self-confidence and independence.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
2 Oct. 2025
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In 1972, the Sunday Times published an obituary for Flo, Flint’s mother and the dominant matriarch, after she was found face down on the edge of a stream.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Demosponges are soft and squishy filter feeders and their ancestors likely shared similar characteristics.—
Maria Azzurra Volpe,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Oct. 2025
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Where Lil Boosie and Kevin Gates are hometown heroes, two artists who are direct ancestors for YoungBoy’s style, YoungBoy is more notorious, fodder for the gossip shows and the minor podcasts that infiltrate their way onto your timeline.—
Jayson Buford,
Rolling Stone,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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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
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This scaffold contains microscopic channels filled with spinal neural progenitor cells, or sNPCs.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Sep. 2025
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.—
Eshe Ukweli,
refinery29.com,
7 June 2023
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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.—
AJ Willingham,
CNN,
28 May 2023
Noun
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For someone like Eli, then, projecting movie-star-like virility and vigor was an exercise in social advancement, in distancing himself from his babushka forebears’ grim reality.—
David Kamp,
New Yorker,
4 Oct. 2025
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Our forebears turned orchards into neighborhoods that welcomed us.—
Belal Aftab,
Mercury News,
30 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ancestress.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ancestress. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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