ancestral

CEFRC1

/ænˈsɛs.təɹ.əl/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

Examples

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

Extra meaning

In context

They were erected to commemorate a certain event or to tell an ancestral legend.
an ancestral estate
one’s ancestral home

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

The word in print, with each source given in full.

It seems that people with an ancestral history of enduring famines develop a tendency to store more body fat, becoming overfat even when they aren’t overweight.
2025 June 17, Shane Duquette, Marco Walker-Ng, “What is Skinny Fat? And How to Know If You Are”, in Bony to Beastly, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025
Some big cheese bein' grought back to his native island to get planted with his ancestrals.
1955, Harry Chandler Elliott, Reprieve from Paradise, page 147
I thought of the strange two-dimensional world these forebearing ancestrals had to live in.
2006, Scott Dikkers, Peter Hilleren, Destined for Destiny, page 23
Moreover, the superior ancestrals associated with Plymouth Rock (the Pilgrim Fathers) and Mt. Rushmore (four U.S. presidents) function in the same way as premodern superior ancestrals the world over: as superhuman beings, they preserve and maintain the nation. However, unlike superior ancestrals in pre-modern societies, these ancestors do not evolve out of an actual kin group, and therefore one does not have to be a lineal descendant to approach them.
2007, Michael R. Ott, The Future of Religion: Toward a Reconciled Society, page 145
Cadwy and some of the ancestrals carried Gilbert back to the platform to have his wounds healed by Guinevere.
2018, R. C. Jette, The Elfdins and the Gold Temple: An Oralee Chronicle

Looking a word up is the easy part. LexUp remembers which words you have met and brings them back at the point you were about to forget them.

From Anglo-Norman ancestrel, from ancestre (“ancestor”), equivalent to ancestor + -al.