Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Ancestral descent or lineage.
  • noun Ancestors considered as a group.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A series or line of ancestors or progenitors; lineage, or those who compose a preceding line of natural descent.
  • noun Hence Descent from a line of honorable ancestors; high birth.
  • noun In biology, the series of ancestors or ancestral types through which an organized being may have come to be what it is in the process of evolution.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Condition as to ancestors; ancestral lineage; hence, birth or honorable descent.
  • noun A series of ancestors or progenitors; lineage, or those who compose the line of natural descent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Condition as to ancestors; ancestral lineage; hence, birth or honorable descent.
  • noun A series of ancestors or progenitors; lineage, or those who compose the line of natural descent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline
  • noun the descendants of one individual

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English auncestrie, alteration (influenced by auncestre, ancestor) of Old French ancesserie, from ancessour, ancestor, from Latin antecessor; see ancestor.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French ancesserie. See ancestor.

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