FOREMOTHER Synonyms: 31 Similar and Opposite Words

foremother

noun

Definition of foremother

as in grandmother

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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 foremother No one emerges at the end of the book as entirely good or bad (save, perhaps, for Busia, Regan’s culinary foremother). — Makana Eyre, Washington Post, 9 Jan. 2023 In a year when avant-pop stars such as Rosalía thrilled with volcanic vocals and cybernetic beats, their foremother dug in yet-stranger soil. — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2022 Taking inspiration from her literary foremother Zora Neale Hurston, Walker centers southern Black women, who are all too often misrepresented in American culture. — Usa Today Staff, USA TODAY, 27 Sep. 2021 The Houston exhibit, conceived by White and co-curator Jill Dawsey, explores Saint Phalle’s avant-garde status and how her resistance establishes her as a foremother of such contemporary artists as Tschabalala Self, Katie Stout, and Rachel Feinstein. — Amarie Gipson, Town & Country, 4 Sep. 2021 See All Example Sentences for foremother

Recent Examples of Synonyms for foremother

Noun

Dondi Voigt Persyn, a mother of three and grandmother of four from Boerne, Texas – on a hill above the Guadalupe River about 35 miles from the disaster zone – joined as a volunteer.

— Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN Money, 6 July 2026
By the time Harry reached Balmoral on his own, his grandmother was dead.

— Jennifer Hassan, USA Today, 6 July 2026

Definition of grandmother

Noun

Meanwhile, Alice, Dana’s ancestress, never becomes much more than a moral quandary: a stubborn victim who is unable to adapt.

— Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2021
Yang Asha is the mythical ancestress of the Miao people, an ethnic minority in China closely related to the Hmong of Southeast Asia.

— Keith Bradsher, New York Times, 26 Nov. 2020

Definition of ancestress

Noun

Brown remembered that Sarah Parsley, the octogenarian matriarch of the family, greeted partygoers from a wheelchair, assisted by a Black nurse.

— Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 3 July 2026
After high school, the Kelce matriarch became the first person in her family to graduate from college, earning a bachelor’s degree in communications from Ohio University.

— Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 2 July 2026

Definition of matriarch

Noun

For anyone wanting to see or experience the sites and vestiges of Miami’s ancient inhabitants, the people known as Tequesta and their even more enigmatic Archaic forebears, there are only a few places to go.

— Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 June 2026
For 17 generations, Wietse Van Der Werf’s forebears toiled as dockworkers, shipbuilders, and sea captains in the Netherlands and its colonies.

— Richard Morgan, Time, 29 June 2026

Definition of forebear

Noun

This type of eating pattern mimics the pattern of our ancestors, which is directly connected with our innate metabolism.

— Melissa Rudy, FOXNews.com, 6 July 2026
Gendron said his ancestors were among the first outsiders to settle the island in the 1700s, when three brothers, fur traders all, left Canada and followed the Mississippi south.

— Andrew Carter, Chicago Tribune, 5 July 2026

Definition of ancestor

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“Foremother.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/foremother. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of foremother

noun

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