How to Use ancestor in a Sentence
ancestor
noun- Her ancestors were great sea captains.
- Latin is the ancestor of Italian and French.
- The museum included an exhibit showing ancestors of the modern computer.
- My ancestors came to America during the 1800s.
-
Indeed, the shades of someone’s ancestor could be just a click away.
—Samantha Baskind, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Apr. 2023
-
There's no better way to celebrate your birthday than learning more about the ancestors that brought you here.
—Kelsey Stiegman, Seventeen, 4 Apr. 2023
-
Swim bladders that control buoyancy in modern-day fish are thought to have evolved from the lungs of ancient ancestors.
—Shi En Kim, Scientific American, 6 Apr. 2023
-
If any of your ancestors naturalized, giving up their Italian citizenship before the birth of the next person in line, the line ends there.
—Jamie Ditaranto, Travel + Leisure, 12 Apr. 2023
-
His poems interrogate lineage and slavery, and some are addressed to his children to teach them about what their ancestors endured and escaped to make their life possible.
—Pamela Avila, USA TODAY, 14 Apr. 2023
-
Some estimates suggest that the Snowball Earth period might line up with the last common ancestor of animals.
—Veronique Greenwood, WIRED, 11 Aug. 2024
-
Most of them are Geechee, descendants of enslaved West Africans who have retained their ancestors’ unique language, culture, and traditions.
—Elizabeth Rhodes, Travel + Leisure, 11 Apr. 2023
-
Alternatively, the hobbit may descend from the larger H. erectus, thought to be a direct ancestor of modern humans in Africa.
—Bybridget Alex, science.org, 6 Aug. 2024
-
Pop artists may crib chord progressions from Bach or add string arrangements for sophistication, and pop music certainly wouldn’t exist without its classy ancestor.
—Tim Greiving, Variety, 4 Apr. 2023
-
Not like our ancestors who died of scurvy at the age of 30.
—Ali Wentworth, Glamour, 9 Aug. 2023
-
The spirit of the ancestors has to make a statement in our lives.
—Lawrence Specker | Lspecker@al.com, al, 9 July 2023
-
For Reti, value is in the spot in the river where his ancestors gave birth and the sacred ground where they’re buried.
—Rachel Pannett, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2023
-
Epochs have passed since our last common ancestor roamed the Earth.
—Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 24 Feb. 2024
-
His ancestors, Catherine and William Brighton, arrived in Utah back in the 1850s.
—Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune, 22 Aug. 2023
-
Some of her ancestors also came from Cyprus in the Mediterranean.
—Daniel Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic, 26 Feb. 2024
-
Our early ancestors must have craned their necks in awe when a lightning bolt lit up the night sky.
—Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 20 Dec. 2023
-
The last common ancestor of cats and dogs lived around 45 million years ago.
—Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 18 Feb. 2024
-
Her ancestors had come to this big-sky state in a covered wagon.
—Stephanie Hanes, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Nov. 2023
-
When and where did our ancestors first fashion footwear?
—Charles Helm, Discover Magazine, 13 Sep. 2023
-
This suggests the ancestors of apes and humans were feasting on soft, sweet fruits, rather than on hard nuts and seeds.
—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Jan. 2024
-
And that’s where Martin Scorcese’s ancestors came from.
—As Told To Vogue, Vogue, 5 Apr. 2024
-
They are known for some distinct sets of chompers and are not a far cry from their living ancestors.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 24 July 2024
-
With a love for all things outdoors, Green’s connection to soil dates back to her ancestors.
—Pauleanna Reid, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024
-
The blechnum had made it after all, just as its ancestor did 66 million years ago.
—Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2023
-
The oral histories of many present-day tribes link their ancestors to earthen mounds.
—AZCentral.com, 5 June 2023
-
Dogs and wolves look and behave very much alike because of this common ancestor.
—Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 1 June 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ancestor.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Last Updated: