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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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
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
-
Kean comes from a long line of public servants, stretching 250 years to the country’s founding when one of his ancestors became New Jersey’s first leader since independence.
-
The driving force for the tour is the idea that Black Americans and Muslims must unapologetically tell their own story, something their ancestors couldn’t do.
Noun
-
College football is nothing without traditions (see above), and ripping Notre Dame-USC from the calendar robs the next generation of fans of both schools from enjoying the game their fathers and grandfathers remember.
-
One of his great-great-grandfathers, Ned, was enslaved in Texas before being freed on Juneteenth.
Noun
-
Russert and Sanders Townsend have bonded over losing their fathers.
-
That would have been unlikely just a few years ago — when laws in this Muslim-majority nation forbade women freedom of travel without permission from husbands or fathers.
Cite this Entry
“Progenitors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/progenitors. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
