Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

ancestor

[an-ses-ter, -suh-ster] / ˈæn sɛs tər, -sə stər /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I teach my students about Didion’s ancestor, Nancy Hardin Cornwall, who trekked westward with the Donner-Reed party in 1846.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026

Congress created the Tenth Circuit in 1929, and it added the ancestor of the D.C.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 31, 2026

Canada, on the other hand, has done exactly the opposite: If you have a direct ancestor born across the northern border, no matter how far back, you probably qualify.

From Salon • May 31, 2026

The team also traced the gene FOS, which is widely expressed in blood cells across many animal species, back to a unicellular ancestor that lived about 700 million years ago.

From Science Daily • May 27, 2026

The parents of a child provided, on average, half the content of that feature; the grandparents, a quarter; the great-grandparents, an eighth—and so forth, all the way back to the most distant ancestor.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee




Vocabulary lists containing ancestor


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember "ancestor" for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com