What is another word for ancestor?

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

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word ancestor.

Princeton's WordNet2.8 / 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 Synonymes0.0 / 0 votes

  1. ancestornoun

    Synonyms:
    forefather, progenitor, father

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words2.4 / 9 votes

  1. ancestornoun

    Synonyms:
    forefather, progenitor, primogenitor, forbear

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

How to pronounce ancestor?

How to say ancestor in sign language?

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#419source
#988base
#1091solution
#1674beginning
#1955root
#2168theme
#2518origin
#5836stem
#6963radical
#12080ancestry
#17599ancestor
#17648predecessor
#22771ancestral
#29136ascendant
#37504forerunner
#44502antecedent
#45158progenitor
#62732ascendancy
#168231ascendent

How to use ancestor in a sentence?

  1. 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.

  2. Qing Tang:

    Proterocladus antiquus is a close relative of the ancestor of all green plants alive today.

  3. Ralph Waldo Emerson:

    The ancestor of every action is a thought.

  4. Steven Pinker:

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

  5. Elaine Ostrander:

    Because they are isolated, they retain whatever genetics was in their ancestor and great ancestors, the Patagonian sheepdog comes the closest to anything anyone has ever seen and that's what makes them so fascinating.


Translations for ancestor

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"ancestor." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 17 Feb. 2025. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/ancestor>.

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