as in ancestors
a person who is several generations earlier in an individual's line of descent
the progenitors of today's Maya once ruled a mighty empire that stretched across much of Central America
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Recent Examples of progenitors
Somewhere in Africa there is a city, town, or village where Henry Fordham’s progenitors lived and died for hundreds or thousands of years, where my distant relatives walk the streets today.
—
Eugene Robinson, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2026
Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, and Duwaji in Texas to Syrian Muslim progenitors.
—José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 2 Jan. 2026
Skye and Billy’s progenitors, by contrast, are revealed to have been free-spirited and independent-minded people who simply left out lots of their complicated, peripatetic story.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
Astronomers have long puzzled over the apparent lack of luminous red supergiant stars in pre-explosion images, even though models predict that these stars should dominate the population of core-collapse supernova progenitors.
—Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 8 Oct. 2025
Though some futuristic progenitors didn’t make the original project (there’s still time for a deluxe), many listeners are celebrating the project as a cross-generational mesh of Atlanta greatness.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 7 Aug. 2025
Eugene Robinson, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2026
Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, and Duwaji in Texas to Syrian Muslim progenitors.
—José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 2 Jan. 2026
Skye and Billy’s progenitors, by contrast, are revealed to have been free-spirited and independent-minded people who simply left out lots of their complicated, peripatetic story.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
Astronomers have long puzzled over the apparent lack of luminous red supergiant stars in pre-explosion images, even though models predict that these stars should dominate the population of core-collapse supernova progenitors.
—Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 8 Oct. 2025
Though some futuristic progenitors didn’t make the original project (there’s still time for a deluxe), many listeners are celebrating the project as a cross-generational mesh of Atlanta greatness.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 7 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for progenitors
Noun
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Connie Martin always knew who her ancestors were growing up.—
Carolyn Stein,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Feb. 2026
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Some of those ancestors left Africa to explore Europe.—
Ari Daniel,
NPR,
4 Feb. 2026
Noun
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My grandfathers had both been miners whose early deaths owed much to their working lives.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Jan. 2026
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And the same impressive nature was true of both women's grandfathers, says Jones.—
Alex Ross,
PEOPLE,
20 Jan. 2026
Noun
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And again the morgues and graveyards of Iran received fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.—
Azar Nafisi,
Time,
3 Feb. 2026
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Tisch and John Mara have functioned as the Giants franchise’s controlling owners for their respective families since the passing of their fathers, Bob Tisch and Wellington Mara, in 2005.—
Pat Leonard,
New York Daily News,
3 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Progenitors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/progenitors. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.
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