variants
also forbears
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
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Recent Examples of forebears
Our forebears turned orchards into neighborhoods that welcomed us.
—
Belal Aftab, Mercury News, 30 Sep. 2025
One wistful way to follow Redford’s career is to trace the paths not taken, and to set them beside the adventurous ones pursued by his contemporaries and forbears.
—Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2025
The album only passingly cares about the signature dance-pop gunk of its 2010s and ’20s peers and forebears and doesn’t (like songs by Gomez, Addison Rae, and others) spend much time exploring Lana Del Rey as a subgenre.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
Once upon a time, scholars thought that human evolution was a march of progress in which our forebears evolved in linear fashion from an apelike ancestor to a series of increasingly humanlike forms.
—Kate Wong, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2025
Belal Aftab, Mercury News, 30 Sep. 2025
One wistful way to follow Redford’s career is to trace the paths not taken, and to set them beside the adventurous ones pursued by his contemporaries and forbears.
—Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2025
The album only passingly cares about the signature dance-pop gunk of its 2010s and ’20s peers and forebears and doesn’t (like songs by Gomez, Addison Rae, and others) spend much time exploring Lana Del Rey as a subgenre.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
Once upon a time, scholars thought that human evolution was a march of progress in which our forebears evolved in linear fashion from an apelike ancestor to a series of increasingly humanlike forms.
—Kate Wong, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for forebears
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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The African roots of cumbia are expressed not only through its percussion instruments - the tambor alegre, the llamador and the tambora - but also through the voices of ancestors reflected in the sung dances of the region.—
Karla Gachet,
NPR,
1 Oct. 2025
Noun
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To end the war and reunite the remaining hostages with their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.—
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena,
USA Today,
4 Oct. 2025
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In one study conducted by sociologist Katherine Conger at the University of California, Davis, fully 65% of mothers and 70% of fathers confessed to having a favorite child.—
Jeffrey Kluger,
Time,
3 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Now a young man, he's recently started a new chapter as an Army private first class and plans to follow in his father's and grandfathers’ military footsteps.—
Susan Young,
People.com,
1 Sep. 2025
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The pride of Santa Elena's silletero families is palpable, with everyone from young children to grandmothers and grandfathers tracing the route of the culminating parade carrying their creations on their backs.—
Carley Rojas Ávila,
Forbes.com,
12 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Forebears.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/forebears. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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