ancestor

«ancestor» in Mova's school dictionary: a person in your family who lived long ago, before your… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an ancestor, ancestors)

meaning for a pupil

1) An ancestor is a person in your family who lived long ago, before your grandparents, like a great-great-grandparent. tree →

2) An ancestor of an animal or plant is an older kind from which it developed: the wolf is an ancestor of the dog. tree →

3) An ancestor of a machine or idea is an earlier form of it. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history lessons pupils make family trees and learn where their ancestors came from (Ireland, Italy, China, Africa…). In science, ancestors explain evolution: birds have dinosaur ancestors. Many cultures honour ancestors, such as Māori whakapapa or Aboriginal Australian connections to Country. Phrases: «our ancestors», «a common ancestor», «ancestor of».

examples

• My ancestors came from Ireland on a ship. tree →
• We made a family tree to find our ancestors. tree →
• The wolf is the ancestor of the dog. tree →
• Birds have dinosaur ancestors. tree →
• Our ancestors hunted and gathered their food. tree →
• Grandma has a photo of an ancestor from 1890. tree →
• The horse's ancestor was as small as a fox. tree →
• Many cultures tell stories about their ancestors. tree →
• Consider what you owe to yourself, and to the blood of your ancestors." tree →

note

Countable: an ancestor. Opposite: descendant (people who come after you). Adjective: ancestral (an ancestral home). Myth: humans did not come from today's monkeys; humans and apes share a common ancestor.

In the corpora

• Bon Odori is a calm circle dance at Japan's summer Obon festival, which honours the spirits of ancestors.
• It is a myth that people came from chimps: chimps and humans are cousins who both changed from a common ancestor.
• The ancestors of elephants, around 55 million years ago, were pig-sized animals with no trunk.
• Crocodile ancestors lived alongside dinosaurs over 200 million years ago, and crocodiles are the closest living relatives of birds.
• Snakes push their bodies against bumps on the ground to move, and pythons still have tiny leg bones left from ancestors with legs.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ancestor» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.