noun / adjective

descendant

dih-SEN-dunt/dɪˈsendənt/

A later being or form originating from an earlier one.

She is a descendant of the town's first elected mayor.

Three generations of the same family stand together, grandparent, adult parent and child with naturally shared features; youngest foreground with older relatives behind, showing descent without diagram labels.

Etymology

deLatindown

+scendLatinto climb

+antFrenchpresent-participle ending

The pieces give the image of “climbing down.” Applied to ancestry, coming down means proceeding from an earlier ancestor, so a descendant belongs to a later generation in that line.

In context

Unpacked6:20

Mordechai was a descendant of a man named Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, who was exiled from Jerusalem over 100 years earlier.

The Judean Exile to Babylonia | The Jewish Story | Unpacked

More examples

Modern dogs are descendants of ancient wolves.
This bicycle is a direct descendant of an earlier racing model.
The two descendant languages share many words.

Forms

descendant · descendants

descend verb — To come from an ancestor or source.

descent noun — Origin from a particular ancestor or source.

Similar words

offspring: Usually means immediate children or young, rather than later generations.
derivative: Names something developed from a source, rather than biological ancestry.