PROGENITORS Synonyms: 39 Similar and Opposite Words

progenitors

noun

plural of progenitor

as in ancestors

a person who is several generations earlier in an individual's line of descent the progenitors of today's Maya once ruled a mighty empire that stretched across much of Central America

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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 progenitors Watching their metronomic thriller does more to suggest the arrival of a hyper-sexualized answer to the Coen brothers than the progeny of William Gibson or the progenitors of multiplex psychedelia. — Nick Newman, IndieWire, 1 June 2026 Its story of five girls — all navigating preteenagerdom under the stewardship of their tragically well-meaning white dads — stands firmly on its own legs, even staring down some of its progenitors. — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 20 May 2026 To get to the bottom of things, though, the team behind the new research examined the host galaxies and environments of LFBOTs to try to pin down what the progenitors of these explosive events could really be. — Robert Lea, Space.com, 8 May 2026 In a scene following the triumph of successfully creating a human blastocyst outside the womb, IVF’s three progenitors face the Medical Research Council. — Literary Hub, 29 Apr. 2026 The key to calculating the amount of energy blasted out is realizing that the mass of a merger’s resulting black hole is not simply the sum of its progenitors. — Phil Plait, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2026 Somewhere in Africa there is a city, town, or village where Henry Fordham’s progenitors lived and died for hundreds or thousands of years, where my distant relatives walk the streets today. — Eugene Robinson, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2026 Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, and Duwaji in Texas to Syrian Muslim progenitors. — José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 2 Jan. 2026 Skye and Billy’s progenitors, by contrast, are revealed to have been free-spirited and independent-minded people who simply left out lots of their complicated, peripatetic story. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for progenitors

Noun

Essay Get the Lead Out Alex Manley Our ancestors were born to die by predators.

— Naomi Skwarna, hazlitt.net, 25 Aug. 2026
For the last decade, genealogical consultant Grant Din has helped Asian Americans find information about their ancestors, many of whom passed through San Francisco’s Angel Island Immigration Station in the 1900s.

— Stephanie Lam, Mercury News, 24 Aug. 2026

Definition of ancestors

Noun

Born in Russell County, Virginia, Hubbard was largely raised by his grandfathers, both union coal miners with missing fingers, and still speaks with an Appalachian twang.

— Michelle Lhooq, New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2026
Sorrell, whose grandfathers both played in the majors, slugged 23 home runs and 20 doubles in 56 games while drawing 33 walks and striking out 61 times.

— Meghan Montemurro, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2026

Definition of grandfathers

Noun

In Brothers, both McConaughey and Harrelson’s characters look back at their fathers’ legacies while also navigating being good fathers themselves.

— Rebecca Ford, Vanity Fair, 24 Aug. 2026
Other people are rarely the focus of blame in cases where fathers kill their children.

— Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, Hartford Courant, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of fathers

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“Progenitors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/progenitors. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of progenitors

noun

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