Synonyms for ancestor
ˈæn sɛs tər; esp. Brit. -sə stəran·ces·tor

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:2.8 / 6 votes

1. ancestor, ascendant, ascendent, antecedent, rootnoun

   someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

   Synonyms:
   theme, rootage, radical, ascendant, antecedent, etymon, base, beginning, solution, origin, stem, root, source, tooth root, ascendent, forerunner, root word

   Antonyms:
   descendent, descendant

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. ancestornoun

   Synonyms:
   forefather, progenitor, father

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:2.4 / 9 votes

1. ancestornoun

   Synonyms:
   forefather, progenitor, primogenitor, forbear

   Associated words:
   atavic, atavism, lineal, collateral, hereditary, heredity, genealogy, genealogist

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "ancestor":

   progenitor, ascendant, forerunner, predecessor, ancestral, old-timer, ascendancy, ancestry

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How to use ancestor in a sentence?

1. Peter Makovicky:

   Gualicho did not inherit this forelimb anatomy from an ancestor it shared with tyrannosaurs. Rather, it evolved independently in the two groups.

2. Steven Pinker:

   Ancestor worship must be an appealing idea to those who are about to become ancestors.

3. Frederick Henry Hedge:

   Every man is his own ancestor, and every man is his own heir. He devises his own future, and he inherits his own past.

4. Rhiannon Giddens:

   When I first heard the minstrel banjo - I played a gourd first - I almost lost my mind. I was like, Oh, my god. And then I went to Africa, to the Gambia, and studied the akonting, which is an ancestor of the banjo, and just that connection to me was just immense.

5. Darryl Granger:

   What our age shows is that this can not be true, because they are virtually the same age, there must be an older common ancestor. It also gives much more time for the South African species to evolve, and reopens discussion about the role of the South African species into later hominins such as Paranthropus.