English
descendant
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /dɪˈsɛndənt/
Adjective

descendant (not comparable)

  1. descending from a biological ancestor.
  2. proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.
Antonyms Related terms Noun

descendant (plural descendants)

  1. (literally) One who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.
    ''The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.
  2. (figuratively) A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
    ''This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.
  3. (biology) A later evolutionary type.
    ''Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
  4. (linguistics) A language that is descended from another.
    English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
  5. (linguistics) A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
    • 1993, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ē-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi and Reiner Lipp (editors), Comparative-Historical Linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing, ISBN 978-90-272-3598-5, page 479 ↗:
      The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Translations

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