ancestor

/ˈænsestə(r)/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈænsestər/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈan-ˌse-stər also -sə-/ (ame, mw)

ancestor — noun

1. someone in the generations before your grandparents, from whom your family line

1.名詞B2
釋義

someone in the generations before your grandparents, from whom your family line comes.

例句

Mina found an ancestor's name in a church record from 1784.

ancestor's + noun

Our ancestors came to Taiwan by boat more than two centuries ago.

ancestors in family-origin stories

同義詞
  • forebear

    close in meaning but more formal, especially in historical writing

  • forefather

    often male-specific or used for founders of a people or tradition

  • progenitor

    more formal and technical; common in biological or scholarly contexts

反義詞
  • descendant

    someone who comes later in the same family line

文法句型

an ancestor of + person/family

your ancestors

用法筆記

Often used in the plural when people speak about family origins, customs, or people from long ago. Distinguish from sense 2, where the word names an earlier species, form, or machine rather than a person.

常見錯誤

❌We are ancestors of the king.
✅We are descendants of the king.
💡if your family comes from an earlier person, you are that person's descendants, not ancestors.
❌My grandfather is one of my ancestors, so I wrote about an ancestor from 1975.
✅My grandfather is my grandfather; I wrote about an ancestor from the 1700s.
💡'ancestor' usually points to a much earlier family member when the exact relation is not named.

2. a living thing, species, machine, or other thing from an earlier time that later

2.名詞C1
釋義

a living thing, species, machine, or other thing from an earlier time that later ones developed from or were based on.

例句

Scientists believe this small dinosaur was an ancestor of modern birds.

ancestor of + modern species

That camera was an ancestor of the smartphones we use today.

ancestor of + later device

同義詞
  • forerunner

    emphasizes coming earlier and leading to what followed

  • predecessor

    general word for an earlier form, stage, or holder of a role

  • prototype

    best for an early model of a machine or device, not a species

  • progenitor

    formal word often used in biology for the original source of a line

反義詞
  • descendant

    a later species or form that develops from an earlier one

  • successor

    a later machine, form, or stage that replaces an earlier one

文法句型

an ancestor of + modern species/object

a common ancestor

用法筆記

Common in biology, evolution, and the history of technology, usually with 'ancestor of'. Distinguish from sense 1, which refers to a person in a family line.

常見錯誤

❌The smartphone is an ancestor of the old telephone.
✅The old telephone is an ancestor of the smartphone.
💡the ancestor is the earlier form, not the later one.
❌Modern birds are ancestors of some dinosaurs.
✅Some dinosaurs were ancestors of modern birds.
💡the word points backward in time to what came first.