ancestors

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of ancestor.

   His ancestors farmed the same valley for nearly three centuries.

   The museum traced the migration routes of the region's earliest ancestors.

   Note

   One spelling, two words: the plural noun shares its form with the verb form. As a noun, it reaches back any distance and down either parent's line, so grandparents count as surely as forebears centuries gone. The plural carries the singular's wider meanings too: earlier types from which later ones developed, people who once held the same role, and those from whom an estate passed to its heirs.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of ancestor.

   Note

   Here the noun is put to work as a verb meaning "to be an ancestor of," and it is always transitive: something ancestors something else, and the object cannot be dropped. The -s form follows a singular subject, as in a founding couple ancestors a whole population. Position tells it apart from the plural noun: the verb sits between subject and object, while the noun names the forebears themselves.

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