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.
  • This finding raises new questions around our hunter-gatherer ancestors’ diet and lifestyle.
    Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Oct. 2024
  • Cregan is the son of Rickon Stark and another ancestor of Ned Stark.
    Josh St. Clair, Men's Health, 22 Aug. 2022
  • Isildur is also the direct ancestor of Aragorn, and his legacy looms large throughout the original Lord of the Rings.
    Devan Coggan, EW.com, 2 Aug. 2022
  • 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
  • Their ancestor, Charles I, was the first to open the royal postal service to public use in 1635 to raise funds.
    Adela Suliman, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2022
  • Indeed, the shades of someone’s ancestor could be just a click away.
    Samantha Baskind, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Apr. 2023
  • 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
  • Above the slave quarters was a library full of books, except their great ancestors had no chance of reading them.
    Tiffani Jackson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 May 2024
  • Ever wondered what the world was like for our 65-million-year-old rat-like ancestors?
    Vanessa Armstrong, Vulture, 27 July 2023
  • His ancestors are buried at the nearby Pioneer Cemetery, but Cook jokes he’d rather be buried at the foot of the flagpole on the farmstead.
    Cara Nixon, oregonlive, 17 July 2023
  • Our ancestors have been divided from the beginning, just as Latinos are today.
    Geraldo Cadava, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2024

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.

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