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# descendant

noun (a descendant, descendants)

«descendant» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A person who comes later in the same family line: a child, grandchild, great-grandchild and so on. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#m1)
2. An animal or plant that has developed from an earlier kind. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#m2)
3. Something that has grown out of an earlier thing. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#m3)

### In the lessons

In history and family-tree lessons, descendants are the people who come after an ancestor. In science, birds are thought to be descendants of dinosaurs. In stories, «a descendant of the king» tells the reader someone has royal blood. Phrases: «a direct descendant», «descendants of», «ancestors and descendants».

### Examples

- She is a descendant of Irish farmers. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x1)
- Birds are descendants of dinosaurs. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x2)
- The old queen had dozens of descendants. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x3)
- We drew a family tree with Great-Gran at the top and her descendants below. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x4)
- Modern dogs are descendants of wolves. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x5)
- He claims to be a descendant of a famous pirate. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x6)
- Today's computers are descendants of huge early machines. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x7)
- Daedalus, a descendant of Erechtheus, was an Athenian architect, sculptor, and mechanician. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/#x8)

### Note

Opposite: ancestor (someone who came before). Spelling trap: the noun is usually «descendant» (with «-ant»); «descendent» is a rarer adjective. Do not confuse with «descent» (going down, or family origin). Countable.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «descendant» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/descendant/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«descendant» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/descendant.html) on Mova free.