as in ancestor
a person who is several generations earlier in an individual's line of descent
villagers who still practice many of the customs of their forebearers
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Recent Examples of forebearer
Like its classic-rock forebearer Desert Trip, the concert will bring two acts per night to Indio’s Empire Polo Club, on the weekend of Oct. 6-8.
—
August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2023
After leaving Alabama, Avinger served a year in the U.S. Army, then signed for a season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union, one of the forebearers of the Canadian Football League.
—Mark Inabinett | [email protected], al, 17 Apr. 2023
Mike Brown said the digital driver license is the forebearer of discriminating against the unvaccinated.
—Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 Feb. 2022
If successful, The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, named in honor of its famous nautical forebearer and known as MAS for short, will be the first such trans-Atlantic voyage by an autonomous vessel.
—Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 27 Nov. 2021
Quaker Oats retired Aunt Jemima, allowing her real-life forebearer, Nancy Green, to step out of the shadows of a minstrel past.
—Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2020
Chickamauga is two lakes upstream from Guntersville and other TVA lakes in Alabama, which likely means the fish or their forebearers passed through Alabama waters and that lots of them could still be there.
—Frank Sargeant, al, 22 Jan. 2020
Our generation inherited a healthy ocean from our forebearers.
—CNN, 24 Sep. 2019
Many of our forebearers, including my great-grandfather, were undocumented immigrants, no different from Central American migrants today.
—Aaron Freedman, The New Republic, 9 Aug. 2019
August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2023
After leaving Alabama, Avinger served a year in the U.S. Army, then signed for a season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union, one of the forebearers of the Canadian Football League.
—Mark Inabinett | [email protected], al, 17 Apr. 2023
Mike Brown said the digital driver license is the forebearer of discriminating against the unvaccinated.
—Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 Feb. 2022
If successful, The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, named in honor of its famous nautical forebearer and known as MAS for short, will be the first such trans-Atlantic voyage by an autonomous vessel.
—Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 27 Nov. 2021
Quaker Oats retired Aunt Jemima, allowing her real-life forebearer, Nancy Green, to step out of the shadows of a minstrel past.
—Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2020
Chickamauga is two lakes upstream from Guntersville and other TVA lakes in Alabama, which likely means the fish or their forebearers passed through Alabama waters and that lots of them could still be there.
—Frank Sargeant, al, 22 Jan. 2020
Our generation inherited a healthy ocean from our forebearers.
—CNN, 24 Sep. 2019
Many of our forebearers, including my great-grandfather, were undocumented immigrants, no different from Central American migrants today.
—Aaron Freedman, The New Republic, 9 Aug. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for forebearer
Noun
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Such cooperative behavior to defend from predators like raptors may have first evolved in our ancestors.—
Joshua Rapp Learn,
Smithsonian Magazine,
14 July 2025
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The fifth-generation Southerner said removing the monument would be a betrayal to the memory of his ancestors and other soldiers.—
arkansasonline.com,
arkansasonline.com,
13 July 2025
Noun
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This is all thanks to Jane Blaffer Owen an oil heiress from Houston (her father was one of the founders of a company that’s now ExxonMobil and her grandfather established the company that ultimately became Texaco), whose husband, Kenneth Dale Owen was a descendent of New Harmony’s founders.—
Rima Suqi,
Forbes.com,
24 July 2025
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Just across the river from Wilmington, on the other side of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the Scott’s Auto repair shop founded by his grandfather has been a mainstay in Carneys Point, N.J., since 1978.—
Jeff Gluck,
New York Times,
24 July 2025
Noun
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My father never got to speak for himself because his health robbed him of that chance.—
Rance Collins,
IndieWire,
20 July 2025
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Over the two decades that Al-Waleed was in a coma, his father opted to keep him on life support and often shared social media footage of himself and other family members praying for his son's recovery.—
Charlotte Phillipp,
People.com,
20 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Forebearer.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/forebearer. Accessed 30 Jul. 2025.
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