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ancestry

Syllabification: (an·ces·try)
Pronunciation: /ˈanˌsestrē/
Translate ancestry | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of ancestry

noun (plural ancestries)

[usually in singular]
  • 1one’s family or ethnic descent:his Viking ancestry
  • the evolutionary or genetic line of descent of an animal or plant:the ancestry of the rose is extremely complicated
  • 2the origin or background of something:the book traces the ancestry of women’s poetry

Origin:

Middle English: alteration of Old French ancesserie, from ancestre (see ancestor)

ancestry in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of ancestry in the British & World English dictionary

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