as in ancestor
a person who is several generations earlier in an individual's line of descent
our forefathers bought this farm, and our family has worked it for three generations
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Recent Examples of forefather
Markus — whose great-great-great-grandfather invented the nutcracker doll — makes nutcrackers for a living, as did each of his forefathers who descended from the great inventor.
—
Elaina Patton, IndieWire, 15 Dec. 2025
The military forefathers of the Valley must have been horrified at the hippies their children became, though by the eighties the arc of flower power had bent toward the common ground of Wall Street.
—Literary Hub, 21 Nov. 2025
The original maps, with all due respect to the forefathers of FEMA, were kind of done on paper and crayon.
—Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 18 Nov. 2025
Earlier this year at Coachella, funk forefather George Clinton gifted Leon Thomas a custom hat, lauding him as one of the contemporary torchbearers of the genre.
—Kyle Denis, Billboard, 24 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for forefather
Elaina Patton, IndieWire, 15 Dec. 2025
The military forefathers of the Valley must have been horrified at the hippies their children became, though by the eighties the arc of flower power had bent toward the common ground of Wall Street.
—Literary Hub, 21 Nov. 2025
The original maps, with all due respect to the forefathers of FEMA, were kind of done on paper and crayon.
—Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 18 Nov. 2025
Earlier this year at Coachella, funk forefather George Clinton gifted Leon Thomas a custom hat, lauding him as one of the contemporary torchbearers of the genre.
—Kyle Denis, Billboard, 24 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for forefather
Recent Examples of Synonyms for forefather
Noun
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The issue is also deeply personal for Hall—his tribal council has granted and rescinded his own enrollment, all based on evolving interpretations of old documents about an ancestor.—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
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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
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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
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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
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In the earliest Greek texts, Phoinix was also the father of Europa, who, in mythology, was a princess, raped and carried off by Zeus and brought to the island of Crete.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 Jan. 2026
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When Hodel died in 1999, Steve found a photo in his father’s belongings that appeared to be Short.—
Alex Gurley,
PEOPLE,
15 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Forefather.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/forefather. Accessed 16 Jan. 2026.
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