ancestral

[ an-ses-truhl ]
See synonyms for ancestral on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. pertaining to ancestors; descending or claimed from ancestors: an ancestral home.

  2. serving as a forerunner, prototype, or inspiration.

Origin of ancestral

1
1425–75; late Middle English aunce(s)trel<Middle French, equivalent to ancestreancestor + -el-al1

Other words from ancestral

  • an·ces·tral·ly, adverb
  • non·an·ces·tral, adjective
  • non·an·ces·tral·ly, adverb
  • pseu·do·an·ces·tral, adjective
  • pseu·do·an·ces·tral·ly, adverb

Words Nearby ancestral

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use ancestral in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for ancestral

ancestral

/ (ænˈsɛstrəl) /


adjective
  1. of, inherited from, or derived from ancestors: his ancestral home

noun
  1. logic a relation that holds between x and y if there is a chain of instances of a given relation leading from x to y. Thus the ancestral of parent of is ancestor of, since x is the ancestor of y if and only if x is a parent of…a parent of…a parent of y

Derived forms of ancestral

  • ancestrally, adverb

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