FOREMOTHER Synonyms: 31 Similar and Opposite Words

foremother

noun

Definition of foremother

as in grandmother

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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 foremother The show is partly Star's love letter to the glamour of Paris (a city he's been enamored with since his teens), with a protagonist who embodies both the winningest and messiest instincts of her foremother, Carrie Bradshaw. — Harper's BAZAAR, 10 Jan. 2023 No one emerges at the end of the book as entirely good or bad (save, perhaps, for Busia, Regan’s culinary foremother). — Makana Eyre, Washington Post, 9 Jan. 2023 In a year when avant-pop stars such as Rosalía thrilled with volcanic vocals and cybernetic beats, their foremother dug in yet-stranger soil. — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2022 Taking inspiration from her literary foremother Zora Neale Hurston, Walker centers southern Black women, who are all too often misrepresented in American culture. — Usa Today Staff, USA TODAY, 27 Sep. 2021 See All Example Sentences for foremother

Recent Examples of Synonyms for foremother

Noun

The two also had a remembrance altar paying homage to Lopez’s maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather.

— Elena Tittel, Chicago Tribune, 8 Nov. 2026
In the preceding decade, the younger members of the Tamura family had died off, one by one, leaving only an elderly grandmother.

— Yasushi Inoue, New Yorker, 8 Nov. 2026

Definition of grandmother

Noun

Yang Asha is the mythical ancestress of the Miao people, an ethnic minority in China closely related to the Hmong of Southeast Asia.

— Keith Bradsher, New York Times, 26 Nov. 2020
His own mother, aged ninety, who remembered her aunt, had been able to share stories of their ancestress with the grandchildren who’d had no idea, before now, what their background might be.

— Susan Choi, Harper's magazine, 6 Jan. 2020

Definition of ancestress

Noun

In the process, a family tries to come to the aid of its ailing matriarch, presented with only a series of unappealing options, each more unbearable than the next.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2026
The Gilded Age follows high society in New York City in the 1880s and stars Carrie Coon and Christine Baranski as new money matriarch Bertha Russell and old money widow Agnes van Rhijn.

— Jaeden Pinder, Rolling Stone, 2 Nov. 2026

Definition of matriarch

Noun

As my generation of veterans—millennials born between 1981 and 1996—attain positions of power, we are presented with the same responsibility to lead during tumultuous times that our forebears faced.

— Brandon J Archuleta, Oc Register, 11 Nov. 2026
Adults is the exact sort of show that’s fun to look forward to weekly, and develop discourse and memes over time, and would place it firmly in the lineage of its weekly release forebears like New Girl.

— Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 11 Nov. 2026

Definition of forebear

Noun

Very charming to think of our ancient ancestors getting the munchies.

— AJ Willingham, AJC.com, 6 Nov. 2026
Throughout the region, remains of 5,500 ancestors that were displaced have been made available for return to the Tohono O’odham Nation, according to ProPublica’s NAGPRA database.

— Ryan Devereaux, ProPublica, 2 Nov. 2026

Definition of ancestor

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foremost

foremother

foremothers

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Style

“Foremother.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/foremother. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of foremother

noun

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