Forefather

//ˈfɔːˌfɑːðə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An ancestor.

    "His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill; an only brother at Montauk Point having sickened in the trenches before Santiago."

  2. 2
    the founder of a family wordnet
  3. 3
    A cultural ancestor; one who originated an idea or tradition.
  4. 4
    person from an earlier time who contributed to the tradition shared by some group wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
ascendantprogenitorancestorancestorantecedentantecedent

Example

More examples

"The team then was able to find the first evidence of a common amphibious forefather of modern sea cows, hyraxes and elephants that lived 65 million years ago in shallow African waters."

Etymology

From Middle English forefader, forfader, vorvader, from Old English forefæder (“forefather”), but possibly also merged with Old Norse forfaðir. Equivalent to fore- + father. Compare Dutch voorvader (“forefather”), German Vorvater, Vorfahr (“forefather”), Danish forfader (“forefather”), Swedish förfader (“forefather”).

More for "forefather"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.