descendants

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

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。

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

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'.