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
Watching their metronomic thriller does more to suggest the arrival of a hyper-sexualized answer to the Coen brothers than the progeny of William Gibson or the progenitors of multiplex psychedelia.
—
Nick Newman,
IndieWire,
1 June 2026
Its story of five girls — all navigating preteenagerdom under the stewardship of their tragically well-meaning white dads — stands firmly on its own legs, even staring down some of its progenitors.
—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
20 May 2026
To get to the bottom of things, though, the team behind the new research examined the host galaxies and environments of LFBOTs to try to pin down what the progenitors of these explosive events could really be.
—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
8 May 2026
In a scene following the triumph of successfully creating a human blastocyst outside the womb, IVF’s three progenitors face the Medical Research Council.
—
Literary Hub,
29 Apr. 2026
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
Nick Newman,
IndieWire,
1 June 2026
Its story of five girls — all navigating preteenagerdom under the stewardship of their tragically well-meaning white dads — stands firmly on its own legs, even staring down some of its progenitors.
—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
20 May 2026
To get to the bottom of things, though, the team behind the new research examined the host galaxies and environments of LFBOTs to try to pin down what the progenitors of these explosive events could really be.
—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
8 May 2026
In a scene following the triumph of successfully creating a human blastocyst outside the womb, IVF’s three progenitors face the Medical Research Council.
—
Literary Hub,
29 Apr. 2026
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for progenitors
Noun
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Goodhouse recalled stories his grandfather would tell him of their ancestors who were in the Hunkpapa camp when troops attacked.
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These findings suggest that throughout great ape evolution, our ancestors gradually developed more control over the timing of their vocalizations, including laughter.
Noun
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Happy Father’s Day to fathers everywhere — birth fathers, stepfathers, adoptive and foster fathers, grandfathers, and all of you caring men who mentor children and fill the role of absent dads.
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Many influential leadership lessons stem from grandfathers through personal stories and experiences.
Noun
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While some of the wives wouldn’t bother coming to games every Sunday, Michel said, many of the children saw the Feeney fathers as proper heroes.
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The play, which was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, follows three adult children who meet to settle their fathers’ estate, and, in the process, discover secrets about their parents’ lives.
Cite this Entry
“Progenitors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/progenitors. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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