What does Ancestral mean?

Definitions for Ancestral
ænˈsɛs trəlan·ces·tral

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Ancestral.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. ancestral, hereditary, patrimonial, transmissibleadjective

    inherited or inheritable by established rules (usually legal rules) of descent

    "ancestral home"; "ancestral lore"; "hereditary monarchy"; "patrimonial estate"; "transmissible tradition"

  2. ancestraladjective

    of or belonging to or inherited from an ancestor

Wiktionary

  1. ancestraladjective

    Of, pertaining to, derived from, or possessed by, an ancestor or ancestors; as, an ancestral estate.

  2. Etymology: ancestral, from ancestre.

Wikipedia

  1. ancestral

    An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). Ancestor is "any person from whom one is descended. In law, the person from whom an estate has been inherited."Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other or if they share a common ancestor. In evolutionary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer. Some research suggests that the average person has twice as many female ancestors as male ancestors. This might have been due to the past prevalence of polygynous relations and female hypergamy.Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2n ancestors in the nth generation before her/him and a total of 2g+1 − 2 ancestors in the g generations before him/her. In practice, however, it is clear that most ancestors of humans (and any other species) are multiply related (see pedigree collapse). Consider n = 40: the human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 240, approximately 1012 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans who have ever lived. Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek providence from their deceased ancestors; this practice is sometimes known as ancestor worship or, more accurately, ancestor veneration.

ChatGPT

  1. ancestral

    Ancestral refers to anything related to, originating from, or belonging to an ancestor or ancestors. It can also encompass characteristics, attributes, or possessions inherited from previous generations. This term can be closely linked to history, heritage, lineage, and family. It can be applied to a broad range of contexts such as people, property, traits, cultures, traditions, and beliefs.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Ancestraladjective

    of, pertaining to, derived from, or possessed by, an ancestor or ancestors; as, an ancestral estate

Entomology

  1. Ancestral

    primitive; inherited from an earlier form or ancestor.

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce Ancestral?

How to say Ancestral in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of Ancestral in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of Ancestral in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of Ancestral in a Sentence

  1. Evelyn Waugh, Work Suspended (1943):

    Beavers bred in captivity, inhabiting a concrete pool, will, if given the timber, fatuously go through all the motions of damming and ancestral stream.

  2. Colleen Hanabusa:

    When Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chose to address me in Japanese( when no one else was greeted in their ancestral language), I understood ‘ this is precisely why Japanese Americans were treated as they were more than 75 years ago.

  3. Anthony Burgess:

    We are supposed to be the children of Seth; but Seth is too much of an effete nonentity to deserve ancestral regard. No, we are the sons of Cain, and with violence can be associated the attacks on sound, stone, wood and metal that produced civilization.

  4. Ayanna Pressley:

    For those that continue to feign great surprise about what happened on January 6. As a Black woman, to be barricaded in my office, using office furniture and water bottles on the ground in the dark that terror, those moments of terror, is familiar in a deep and ancestral way for me, i want us to do everything to ensure that a breach like this never occurs at the Capitol, but I want us to address the evil and scourge that is White supremacy in this nation. This is not only about securing the Capitol to ensure that members and our staffs and custodial staff and food service workers are safe in the Capitol. It is that we are safe in America.

  5. Julia Monk:

    Usually, when evolutionary biologists see a trait thats really widespread across evolutionary lineages, we at least consider the idea that the trait is ancestral and was preserved in all those lineages, so why hadnt people considered that hypothesis for SSB ?

Popularity rank by frequency of use

Ancestral#10000#22771#100000

Translations for Ancestral

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for Ancestral »

Translation

Find a translation for the Ancestral definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Ancestral." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 22 Jan. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Ancestral>.

Discuss these Ancestral definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for Ancestral? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    express strong disapproval of
    A condemn
    B doom
    C interrupt
    D deny

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for Ancestral: