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
The key to calculating the amount of energy blasted out is realizing that the mass of a merger’s resulting black hole is not simply the sum of its progenitors.
—
Phil Plait, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2026
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
Phil Plait, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2026
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for progenitors
Noun
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The find provides the first direct fossil evidence that early mammal ancestors laid eggs.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Apr. 2026
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But did the earliest ancestors of mammals also reproduce through eggs?—
Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
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College-age amateurs competing alongside former champions old enough to be their grandfathers is a longstanding Masters tradition.—
Jack Leo,
AJC.com,
4 Apr. 2026
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Robert Pelot, the owner of Pelot’s Rexall Pharmacy, said it’s been in his family since one of his great-grandfathers moved to the Bradenton area from Indiana in the late 1800s.—
Amaia Gavica,
Miami Herald,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
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At this, the two strangers returned to a parallel silence for the rest of the flight, both of them thinking about their fathers while trying to think of something else.—
Catherine Lacey,
New Yorker,
5 Apr. 2026
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So, to help fathers and other male caregivers feel more comfortable sharing their experiences, some Parent Cafes this year will be facilitated by male hosts, a recent news release from the health department said.—
Aurora Beacon-News,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Progenitors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/progenitors. Accessed 11 Apr. 2026.
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