bloodlines

noun

plural of bloodline
as in pedigrees
the line of ancestors from whom a person is descended came from a bloodline that could be traced back to the 12th century

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 bloodlines The siblings — Kucha, Zeimani and BG — are fresh, vibrant singers who have deep musical bloodlines as the granddaughters of Sam Cooke. — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Aug. 2026 As the lines between the living and dead blur, the book shows that our worst ghosts are the wounds in our own bloodlines. — Shane Hawk, PEOPLE, 19 Aug. 2026 Now, after spending this year’s third-round pick on Barry Bonds’ nephew, outfielder Peyton Bonds, the Giants have plenty of bloodlines from their 2002 World Series team with none of the blood feud. — Andrew Baggarly, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2026 From Bonds and Thome to Pettitte and Sabathia, a new generation of players with MLB bloodlines reignites questions over nepotism and merit. — Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 13 July 2026 More action means more to unpack, like incestuous bloodlines, secret plots that have been years in the making, the rapidly shifting alliances, and how to tell all the silver-haired Targaryens apart. — Nic Juarez, Vulture, 15 June 2026 Two Runner is buttressed by a cavalcade of boisterously rootsy country acts all deeply versed in their genre’s bloodlines, who freely celebrate them with aplomb. — Aaron Davis, Sacbee.com, 29 May 2026 And Sugano’s baseball bloodlines run ever deeper. — Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 23 May 2026 Can the capacity to commit horrific acts be passed through bloodlines? — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 15 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bloodlines
  1. pedigrees
  2. lineages
  3. ancestries
  4. genealogies
  5. origins
Noun
  • Global flavors with local pedigrees provide the secret sauce for Seattle’s culinary scene.
    — Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 29 Aug. 2026
  • The cast has become a kind of living monument to New York theater, with Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Donna Murphy, Kelli O’Hara, Audra McDonald, and many others bringing Broadway pedigrees to the series.
    — Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of pedigrees
Noun
  • One of the lineages appears to have interbred directly with Homo sapiens in Africa more than 50,000 years ago, while the other was an even older group that passed some of its DNA to humans indirectly through Denisovans.
    — Taylor Nicioli, CNN Money, 26 Aug. 2026
  • In addition, the way in initial cases occurred in clusters within the market and the distribution of the earliest viral lineages, is consistent with the likelihood that several separate animal-to-human spillover events took place in late 2019.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of lineages
Noun
  • But Shanes questioned whether grouping Jews under a single ethnic category would produce sufficiently specific data for those purposes, or instead obscure differences among Jewish populations with distinct ancestries.
    — Naomi Taxay, Sacbee.com, 28 Aug. 2026
  • This technique overcomes limitations of older methods like genotyping arrays, which were often biased towards European ancestries and less accurate.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of ancestries
Noun
  • The scientists’ method reconstructs genealogies, or maps showing where different pieces of DNA came from and how they were passed down, revealing branches of our evolutionary past.
    — Taylor Nicioli, CNN Money, 26 Aug. 2026
  • The seal texts often introduced the owners with their names, genealogies, gender, professions and hometowns.
    — Serdar Yalçin, The Conversation, 3 Nov. 2025
Definition of genealogies
Noun
  • The actor opened up about the origins of his steely exterior in a 2023 interview with USA TODAY.
    — Edward Segarra, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2026
  • Arte Distribution has Origins, A Tale of Light, a science doc that uses images created by artist Roman Hill, about the origins of the Universe.
    — Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of origins

Browse Nearby Words

bloodline
bloodlines
bloodlust
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bloodlines.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bloodlines. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

A List of Most Commonly Confused Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 4
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
anagrams on a chalk board
Word Builder Quiz Vol. 2 Pick the letter that when added to a word will ma...
See All