ancestries

noun

plural of ancestry
as in lineages
the line of ancestors from whom a person is descended a Cambodian immigrant who can trace her Khmer ancestry as far back as the 16th century

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of ancestries But Shanes questioned whether grouping Jews under a single ethnic category would produce sufficiently specific data for those purposes, or instead obscure differences among Jewish populations with distinct ancestries. — Naomi Taxay, Sacbee.com, 28 Aug. 2026 This technique overcomes limitations of older methods like genotyping arrays, which were often biased towards European ancestries and less accurate. — William A. Haseltine, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026 In a small number of cases, similar ancestries were grouped together. — Albert Sun, New York Times, 2 July 2026 Eastern and western ancestries in Karelian Mesolithic dogs suggest that two lineages diverged during the Paleolithic. — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 30 Mar. 2026 That drops to 49% for Hispanic/Latino patients, 29% for Black patients and even lower for mixed ancestries, the NMDP reports. — Melissa Rudy, FOXNews.com, 20 Mar. 2026 But many Chicanos trace their lineage to indigenous peoples who survived Spanish colonization, often carrying mixed indigenous, Spanish, and other ancestries, a testament to survival and cultural fusion. — David Alvarado, Time, 15 Dec. 2025 This lack of representation is problematic for people of different ancestries because genetic risk factors differ across populations. — Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 14 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ancestries
  1. lineages
  2. pedigrees
  3. genealogies
  4. origins
Noun
  • But researchers were able to show that over hundreds of thousands of years, the gentoo has diverged into four distinct evolutionary lineages, each of which the researchers say should be its own species.
    — Violet Jira, Washington Post, 29 Sep. 2026
  • When the catastrophe wiped out their massive non-avian relatives, the bird lineages that survived were positioned to take advantage of newly vacant ecological niches.
    — Kevin Brown, Forbes.com, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of lineages
Noun
  • Global flavors with local pedigrees provide the secret sauce for Seattle’s culinary scene.
    — Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 29 Aug. 2026
  • The cast has become a kind of living monument to New York theater, with Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Donna Murphy, Kelli O’Hara, Audra McDonald, and many others bringing Broadway pedigrees to the series.
    — Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of pedigrees
Noun
  • Sometimes, though, these genealogies of behavior can seem beside the point, serving only to dull one’s analysis of the situation.
    — Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2026
  • The scientists’ method reconstructs genealogies, or maps showing where different pieces of DNA came from and how they were passed down, revealing branches of our evolutionary past.
    — Taylor Nicioli, CNN Money, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of genealogies
Noun
  • Life’s one-handedness puzzle The duo’s research has both given chemists fundamental new tools that are widely used in their daily work and awakened interest in the chemistry of life’s origins, the committee said.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2026
  • By then, the meme had already become a viral format, and users cared little about its AI origins.
    — Angela Yang, NBC news, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of origins

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ancestries
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Cite this Entry

“Ancestries.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ancestries. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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