{
    "term": "ancestor",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox5000": true,
    "cefr": "b2",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "a person in your family who lived a long time ago",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "His ancestors had come to America from Ireland."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He can trace his ancestors back to the reign of Elizabeth I."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He claims as his literary ancestors such giants as Henry James and William Faulkner."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Our earliest ancestors lived in a world fraught with danger."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The Romans built these monuments to glorify their illustrious ancestors."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The builder of the house was a direct ancestor of the present owner."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The two species share a common ancestor."
                },
                {
                    "text": "They honour/​honor their ancestors and believe in the spirits of nature."
                },
                {
                    "text": "a distant ancestor of mine"
                }
            ],
            "synonyms": "forebear",
            "topics": ["Family and relationships", "History"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["direct", "immediate", "ancient"],
                "verb + ancestor": ["be descended from", "have", "share"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "an animal that lived in the past that a modern animal has developed from",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a reptile that was the common ancestor of lizards and turtles"
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["direct", "immediate", "ancient"],
                "verb + ancestor": ["be descended from", "have", "share"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 3,
            "definition": "an early form of a machine that later became more developed",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The ancestor of the modern bicycle was called a penny-farthing."
                }
            ],
            "synonyms": "forerunner"
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈænsestə(r)/",
                "audio": "an/ancestor/ancestor__gb_4.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈænsestər/",
                "audio": "an/ancestor/ancestor__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Middle English: from Old French ancestre, from Latin antecessor, from antecedere, from ante ‘before’ + cedere ‘go’."
}