🇫🇷French Source WordCode: FR

ancêtre

Pronunciation / Transliteration: /ɑ̃.sɛtʁ/

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Ancestor/ˈæn.sɛs.tər/
nounCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #3400 frequency
Full Thesaurus
🇫🇷 Example Sentence in French:

"Il est fier de honorer ses ancêtres."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A person from whom one is descended, more remote than a grandparent.

    "She traced her family tree back to her ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower."
  2. 2

    An early type of animal or plant from which a modern type has evolved.

    "Scientists discovered the fossilized remains of an early aquatic ancestor of modern whales."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the Old French word 'antecessor', which stems from the Latin 'antecessor' meaning 'foregoer' or 'predecessor', formed from 'ante-' (before) and 'cedere' (to go). It entered the English language in the 14th century, initially referring to a predecessor in a line of descent.

Quick Vocabulary Retention Check

Which of the following is the closest synonym for "Ancestor"?

Thesaurus & Synonyms Graph

Explore Nuanced Synonyms for "Ancestor"

Discover exact matches, context-specific alternatives, and antonyms with intensity ratings in the VocabDictionary Thesaurus.

View "Ancestor" Synonym Map