ancestry
noun /ˈænsestri/
/ˈænsestri/
[countable, usually singular, uncountable] (plural ancestries)
- the family or the race of people that you come from
- to have Scottish ancestry
- He was able to trace his ancestry back over 1 000 years.
Extra ExamplesTopics Historyc1, Family and relationshipsc1- Humans share a common ancestry with chimpanzees.
- His eyes owed their startling blueness to his Irish ancestry.
- (figurative) The company claims an ancestry going back to 1727.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- common
- shared
- African
- …
- claim
- have
- share
- …
- go back to
- be of Irish, German, etc. ancestry
Word OriginMiddle English: alteration of Old French ancesserie, from ancestre, from Latin antecessor, from antecedere, from ante ‘before’ + cedere ‘go’.