antecessor

Definition of antecessornext

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 antecessor Like Homo antecessor, the Casablanca fossils have a mix of characteristics from Homo erectus, ourselves and our cousins. CBS News, 8 Jan. 2026 The team theorizes that the unknown species arrived in Western Europe before H. antecessor, but that the two species probably overlapped. Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Mar. 2025 But while Pink’s remains don’t match its more modern H. antecessor relatives, researchers stopped short of identifying them as belonging to the H. erectus family. Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 12 Mar. 2025 Though, a protein analysis of the 800,000-year-old tooth enamel of a H. antecessor published last year lends his theory credence. Connor Lynch, Discover Magazine, 17 Dec. 2021 The physical features of H. antecessor have left anthropologists puzzling over its relationships with other early humans. Michael Price, Science | AAAS, 1 Apr. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for antecessor
Noun
  • But under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, the country’s energy sector is in free-fall.
    Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Her predecessor, who is no relation, recruited her to run for council a decade ago.
    Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 8 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • The issue is also deeply personal for Hall—his tribal council has granted and rescinded his own enrollment, all based on evolving interpretations of old documents about an ancestor.
    David Treuer, The Atlantic, 13 Jan. 2026
  • The results show that the earliest lizard ancestors almost certainly lacked the armor altogether, with the trait remaining absent for tens of millions of years after lizards first evolved.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 13 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, and Duwaji in Texas to Syrian Muslim progenitors.
    José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 2 Jan. 2026
  • Skye and Billy’s progenitors, by contrast, are revealed to have been free-spirited and independent-minded people who simply left out lots of their complicated, peripatetic story.
    Richard Brody, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
Noun
  • His late paternal grandfather, Stan Bregman, was a lawyer who once represented the old Washington Senators baseball club.
    Patrick Mooney, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Pierce-Sherrod’s father, who went on to become the city’s chicken king, was born in Alabama and already owned a family business — a grocery store — with her grandfather before moving to Chicago.
    Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 15 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • Our forefathers fought the American Revolution to get away from a tyrannical monarch and indifferent legislators, not to create our own homegrown version of it.
    Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 5 Jan. 2026
  • The Philadelphia Art Museum, the National Constitution Center, the Museum of the American Revolution, and smaller outfits like Eastern State Penitentiary and Historic Germantown will, as expected, reimagine the history of our republic in an homage to the forefathers’ ingenuity.
    Tribune News Service, Baltimore Sun, 5 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • The Dracula of Bram Stoker’s novel, a sophisticated aristocrat, remains, like his forebears, an unwelcome stranger.
    Rivka Galchen, New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2026
  • The Dutch — forebears of our city and exemplars of cycling culture — require fast e-bikes to be licensed and insured as mopeds.
    Sameer Butt, New York Daily News, 4 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • After leaving Alabama, Avinger served a year in the U.S. Army, then signed for a season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union, one of the forebearers of the Canadian Football League.
    Mark Inabinett | minabinett@al.com, al, 17 Apr. 2023
  • Like its classic-rock forebearer Desert Trip, the concert will bring two acts per night to Indio’s Empire Polo Club, on the weekend of Oct. 6-8.
    August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2023

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Cite this Entry

“Antecessor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/antecessor. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

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