Synonyms of forebears

forebears

noun

variants also forbears

plural of forebear

as in ancestors

a person who is several generations earlier in an individual's line of descent

his forebears came to America on the Mayflower

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ancestors
• grandfathers
• fathers
• forefathers
• progenitors
• forebearers
• grandmothers
• predecessors
• foremothers
• primogenitors
• patriarchs
• matriarchs
• ancestresses
• ancestries
• grandsires
• antecedents
• antecessors
• sires
• roots

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• descendants
• children
• families
• offspring
• issues
• lineages
• seed
• sons
• successors
• stocks
• daughters
• heirs
• progenies
• posterities
• inheritors
• scions

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of forebears

Back home in Wilmington, Cynthia Brown built community the way her forebears had built houses—tirelessly and elegantly in the course of years. — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 3 July 2026

For anyone wanting to see or experience the sites and vestiges of Miami’s ancient inhabitants, the people known as Tequesta and their even more enigmatic Archaic forebears, there are only a few places to go. — Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 June 2026

For 17 generations, Wietse Van Der Werf’s forebears toiled as dockworkers, shipbuilders, and sea captains in the Netherlands and its colonies. — Richard Morgan, Time, 29 June 2026

That freedom was also denied Native Americans, whose land our forebears took by force and coercion. — Douglas Brinkley, CBS News, 28 June 2026

Eight Dukes of Wellington and two very full centuries on from that 1825 procession, on this June 16, the 9th Duke rode, as each of his forbears did and as the future heirs to the ducal title will do, in the lead carriage with the king to open Royal Ascot. — Guy Martin, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026

Since then, Istanbul has seen only mayors from his AKP party and its forebears, the Welfare and Virtue parties. — Kaya Genç, The Dial, 9 June 2026

In 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited the site to see where, almost a century and a half earlier, their forebears had fought to dethrone a king, showing the world that another system of government was possible. — Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 9 June 2026

Reopening the door to China in 1972, Richard Nixon reawakened his forebears’ dream of making China embrace American-style democracy and capitalism. — Wyatt Williams, Harpers Magazine, 2 June 2026