as in ancestry
the line of ancestors from whom a person is descended
his family tree includes writers, musical composers, and other notables in the arts
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of family tree
There isn’t a nurse, paramedic, scientist, or doctor on any limb of the family tree.
—
Dr. Ashley Alker, PEOPLE, 13 Jan. 2026
Gone are the elaborate opening credits that trace geography and family trees to guide viewers overwhelmed by exposition.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 13 Jan. 2026
The immortal residents of Mount Olympus—philandering Zeus and his cascading (sometimes circular) family tree—governed every aspect of human existence.
—Rachel Vorona Cote, The Atlantic, 5 Jan. 2026
Organize recordings and photos into a family album and include your family tree.
—Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 30 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for family tree
Dr. Ashley Alker, PEOPLE, 13 Jan. 2026
Gone are the elaborate opening credits that trace geography and family trees to guide viewers overwhelmed by exposition.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 13 Jan. 2026
The immortal residents of Mount Olympus—philandering Zeus and his cascading (sometimes circular) family tree—governed every aspect of human existence.
—Rachel Vorona Cote, The Atlantic, 5 Jan. 2026
Organize recordings and photos into a family album and include your family tree.
—Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 30 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for family tree
Recent Examples of Synonyms for family tree
Noun
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Notably, however, among the new appointees to the board were a Black man, another man whose mother is Iranian and whose father is Pakistani, and a man of Spanish ancestry whose parents were Turkish immigrants.—
Richie Zweigenhaft,
Fortune,
27 Jan. 2026
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For Brown, and other Virgin Islanders with ancestry tied to Danish colonialism, the recent discussions over Greenland’s future have spurred heightened empathy and concern for the 57,000 inhabitants of the 836,000-square-mile island with a climate much different from their own.—
Karissa Waddick,
USA Today,
24 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The lineage continues through efforts to measure intelligence, such as the Binet-Simon test that generated an IQ score, through to Alan Turing’s creation of early computer systems to create beyond-human intelligence.—
David Bloom,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
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Ninety million years after our lineages split, humans are beginning to listen to whales in a new way.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
29 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Johnnie Ray Salisbury, now 71, was linked to the case by forensic genealogy — a science that uses DNA from a family tree to narrow down a suspect.—
Meredith Colias-Pete,
Chicago Tribune,
24 Jan. 2026
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The idea behind genetic genealogy is to take DNA from a crime scene and enter it into a publicly accessible genealogy DNA database in hopes of finding a close enough match to relatives of the unknown perpetrator.—
Teri Figueroa,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
23 Jan. 2026
Noun
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In making that choice, families often find that our public schools are the perfect place for their child to thrive.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
28 Jan. 2026
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The agency investigated 14,938 threat concerns toward members of Congress, their staff, their families, and the Capitol grounds in 2025.—
Molly Parks,
The Washington Examiner,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Mountain lions need wide ranges to hunt, usually for deer, and for males to find unrelated females for breeding.—
Steve Scauzillo,
Daily News,
28 Jan. 2026
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In 2019, Canada passed the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, effectively ending the trade, possession, capture and breeding of whales, dolphins and porpoises for entertainment.—
Michelle Del Rey,
USA Today,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Maybe another working definition of folklore is a narrative with relatively wide acceptance but no clear origin.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Jan. 2026
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Yet the primary data required for compliance—fiber origin, material composition, chemical inputs—are generated and held upstream by suppliers and processors.—
Alexandra Harrell,
Sourcing Journal,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
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During his time in his home state of New Jersey — the Giants' facility is in the same parking lot as MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford — DeVito understood the pedigree of a Super Bowl-winning franchise.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
29 Jan. 2026
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None of those running this time have that political pedigree, or the Sacramento backgrounds of Newsom or Brown, which, Porter suggested, is not a bad thing.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Eger watched her parents taken away to the gas chambers where more than a million people, primarily of Jewish descent, were murdered.—
Linda Mcintosh,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 Jan. 2026
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As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
26 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Family tree.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/family%20tree. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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