descendants

IPA/dɪsˈɛndənts/
KK[dɪsˈɛndənts]IPA/dɪsˈɛndənts/

descendants — 名詞

1. the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on of a particular perso

1.名詞C1
釋義

後代；子孫

某人或某家族之後的世世代代

the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on of a particular person or group — every later generation in a family line, all the way down to the present.

例句

Ada tells her grandchildren they are the descendants of farmers from an Irish village.

Ada 告訴孫子，他們是愛爾蘭一座村莊裡農民的後代。

descendants of [origin group] pattern

Only the direct descendants of the original founder may attend the family reunion in August.

只有原始創辦人的直系後代，才能參加八月的家族聚會。

collocation: direct descendants

常見搭配
  • direct descendants
  • living descendants
  • future descendants
  • the descendants of [a person]
  • trace one's descendants
同義詞
  • offspring

    formal; usually direct children only, not later generations

  • heirs

    specifically those who legally inherit property or a title

  • progeny

    very formal and academic; covers all later generations like descendants

反義詞
  • ancestors

    the earlier generations the descendants come from

  • forebears

    formal word for ancestors, the opposite direction in the family tree

文法句型

someone's descendants

the descendants of [person/group]

direct descendants

用法筆記

Subject is typically a person, family, or named ancestor group; the descendants are all later generations, not just direct sons and daughters. Distinguish from sense 2 (animal) by the parent: if the parent is a human or a family of humans, use this sense.

常見錯誤

My grandfather is one of my descendants.
My grandfather is one of my ancestors.
'descendants' goes downward to later generations; 'ancestors' goes upward to earlier ones.
She is a descendants of King Henry.
She is a descendant of King Henry.
use the singular 'descendant' for one person; 'descendants' is plural only.

2. the animals alive today that come from an animal species that lived long ago — f

2.名詞C1
釋義

後裔；後代

由古代物種演化而來的現代動物

the animals alive today that come from an animal species that lived long ago — for example, today's birds being the descendants of certain dinosaurs.

例句

Most scientists agree that modern birds are the descendants of small feathered dinosaurs.

大多數科學家都同意，現代鳥類是小型有羽恐龍的後裔。

be descendants of + extinct group

House cats are believed to be the descendants of wild cats from the Middle East.

一般認為，家貓是中東地區野貓的後裔。

常見搭配
  • modern descendants
  • distant descendants
  • the descendants of [a species]
  • living descendants
  • evolutionary descendants
同義詞
  • offspring

    the direct young of one animal; narrower than descendants

  • progeny

    formal, used in scientific writing for later generations of animals or plants

反義詞
  • ancestors

    the earlier species the modern animals come from

文法句型

descendants of [species]

modern descendants

用法筆記

Common in biology, evolution writing, and nature documentaries. The 'parent' species is almost always one that lived a very long time ago, often extinct. Distinguish from sense 1 by the subject: if the descendants are animals, use this sense.

常見錯誤

My dog's puppies are her descendants.
My dog's puppies are her offspring.
for the immediate next generation of one animal, 'offspring' is more natural; 'descendants' suggests many later generations.

3. newer things — such as machines, languages, products, or styles — that have grow

3.名詞C1
釋義

衍生物

由舊事物發展而來的新事物或新版本

newer things — such as machines, languages, products, or styles — that have grown out of an earlier thing and still carry features of it, like a kind of family line for objects or ideas.

例句

Today's smartphones are the descendants of the bulky mobile phones of the 1990s.

現在的智慧型手機，是 1990 年代笨重行動電話的衍生物。

descendants of [earlier technology]

Spanish and Italian are descendants of Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.

西班牙語和義大利語都是拉丁語的衍生物，那是羅馬帝國的語言。

languages as descendants of an older language

常見搭配
  • direct descendants of
  • modern descendants of
  • linguistic descendants
  • the descendants of [an earlier model]
  • cultural descendants
同義詞
  • successors

    broader; covers anything that comes after, even without a clear family-tree link

  • offshoots

    things that branch off from a main source; often a smaller side branch

  • derivatives

    neutral and technical; emphasises that something has been derived from a source

反義詞
  • ancestors

    the older designs or styles that the modern descendants grew out of

  • predecessors

    the earlier versions that came before

文法句型

descendants of [earlier thing]

the modern descendants of [X]

用法筆記

Always figurative; the 'parent' is an earlier object, design, language, or art form, not a living being. Distinguish from senses 1 and 2 by what the descendants are: if they are things or ideas rather than people or animals, this sense applies.

常見錯誤

The new app is a descendants of the old website.
The new app is a descendant of the old website.
for one item, use the singular form 'descendant'.
Modern phones are descendants from old phones.
Modern phones are descendants of old phones.
the preposition is always 'of', not 'from'.

同根字

常見搭配

名詞搭配

  • descendants of a family
  • descendants of immigrants
  • descendants of a species

常用片語

  • direct descendants of
  • living descendants
  • modern descendants
  • distant descendants
  • future descendants
  • trace one's descendants

介系詞搭配

  • descendants of