family trees

noun

plural of family tree
as in lineages
the line of ancestors from whom a person is descended his family tree includes writers, musical composers, and other notables in the arts

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 family trees As family trees expand, more stakeholders enter the conversation, and priorities can diverge. — Belinda G. Schwartz, Fortune, 7 Mar. 2026 Virtually every previous Scream film has revealed whole new branches of the various characters’ family trees, and this one is no exception. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Feb. 2026 Unfortunately, those answers often appear directly in public family trees. — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 18 Mar. 2026 The technology has previously achieved major successes in solving high-profile cold cases by tracing family trees through DNA databases. — Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 19 Feb. 2026 The samples helped people discover entirely new family trees and could reveal consequential health information, such as a genetic predisposition to cancer. — Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2026 There’s an urge to reconnect with our heritage, and people are undertaking ancestry pilgrimages, combining boots-on-the-ground investigation into family trees and searching for documents in town halls, with discovering the places our ancestors used to call home. — Alex Ledsom, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026 The Oscar-winning actress and former Vogue editor-in-chief are related, according to an analysis of family trees and public records done by DNA testing company Ancestry. — Melina Khan, USA Today, 2 Apr. 2026 The case was built by forensic genetic genealogy — the same science that traced DNA family trees to find the Golden State Killer in California or solve the Yogurt Shop Murders in Austin, Texas. — Meredith Colias-Pete, Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for family trees
  1. lineages
  2. ancestries
  3. pedigrees
  4. genealogies
  5. families
  6. origins
Noun
  • The research team, led by Ellie Bourgikos and Nathan Grubaugh at the Yale School of Public Health, estimates that one of the virus’s two major lineages arrived in the Northeast by the early 1700s.
    — John Drake, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026
  • Because everyone will have access to the same information, AI will accentuate the value of personal connections, again promoting lineages and networks that at their most extreme may appear to be sinister establishment conspiracies.
    — Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Atlantic, 28 June 2026
Definition of lineages
Noun
  • In a small number of cases, similar ancestries were grouped together.
    — Albert Sun, New York Times, 2 July 2026
  • Eastern and western ancestries in Karelian Mesolithic dogs suggest that two lineages diverged during the Paleolithic.
    — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 30 Mar. 2026
Definition of ancestries
Noun
  • Project Hail Mary’s position will also be tested against new releases from filmmakers with stronger Oscar pedigrees.
    — Sophia Morano, Forbes.com, 23 June 2026
  • The pedigrees of the players are, of course, very strong.
    — Dan Santaromita, New York Times, 17 June 2026
Definition of pedigrees
Noun
  • The seal texts often introduced the owners with their names, genealogies, gender, professions and hometowns.
    — Serdar Yalçin, The Conversation, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Transcripts, grammars, vocabularies, dictionaries, glyph studies, botanical studies, commentaries, articles, editions of codices, correspondence, maps, charts, drawings, photographs, Maya Society materials, genealogies of Maya families, and Mayan glyphs on moveable type.
    — The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 12 Sep. 2025
Definition of genealogies
Noun
  • Gillian's Wonderland Pier in Ocean City was a Jersey Shore landmark that entertained families for decades.
    — Teresa Mull, FOXNews.com, 5 July 2026
  • Some beachgoers have lamented that Laguna Beach’s policy is too restrictive, and that long days spent on the sand require more shade than a small umbrella provides, particularly for families with small children.
    — Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2026
Definition of families
Noun
  • The origins of the Fourth of July date back to July 4, 1776, when the United States unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence.
    — Gabe Hauari, USA Today, 4 July 2026
  • Unlike the first two installments, Silo season 3 features a split-timeline narrative that introduces a host of new characters and delves into the mystery of the silo's origins.
    — Katie Mannion, PEOPLE, 3 July 2026
Definition of origins

Browse Nearby Words

family tree
family trees
family way
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Cite this Entry

“Family trees.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/family%20trees. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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