ancestry

/ˌænˈsɛstri/

/ˈænsɛstri/

Other forms: ancestries

Have a family tree hanging on the wall? Then you know a bit about your ancestry, or family history and lineage.

If you think ancestry sounds like ancestor, then you're headed in the right direction. Ancestry is basically a history of ancestors, a trail of where your family started and all the descendants that followed. But ancestry goes much further than just your great-great-grand uncle's brother. You can also use the word ancestry to refer to the background of things other than people — such as the ancestry of a building or the ancestry of a nation.

Definitions of ancestry

1. noun

   the lineage of an individual
   synonyms: blood, blood line, bloodline, descent, line, line of descent, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, stemma, stock

   types:

   family, family line, folk, kinfolk, kinsfolk, phratry, sept

   people descended from a common ancestor

   side

   a family line of descent

   people

   members of a family line

   homefolk

   the people of your home locality (especially your own family)

   house

   aristocratic family line

   dynasty

   a sequence of powerful leaders in the same family

   gens, name

   family based on male descent

   type of:

   family tree, genealogy

   successive generations of kin
2. noun

   inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline
   synonyms: derivation, filiation, lineage

   types:

   descent, extraction, origin

   properties attributable to your ancestry

   bloodline, pedigree

   ancestry of a purebred animal

   full blood

   descent from parents both of one pure breed

   type of:

   hereditary pattern, inheritance

   (genetics) attributes acquired via biological heredity from the parents