lineage
- 01 C1 Advanced
the series of families that you come from, going back a long time.
direct descent from an ancestor; ancestry or pedigree. Often used in historical or genealogical contexts.
Simple“The king could trace his lineage back to the twelfth century.”
In context“The researcher spent years in the archives attempting to verify the family's noble lineage through baptismal records and land deeds.”
Synonyms - 02 C2 Proficiency
a group of living things that are related because they developed from the same earlier form.
a sequence of species or cells that have evolved from a common ancestor.
Simple“Scientists studied the lineage of the virus to see how it changed.”
In context“By comparing DNA sequences, biologists can reconstruct the evolutionary lineage of modern birds back to their dinosaur ancestors.”
- 03 C2 Proficiency
a way of paying a writer based on how many lines of text they write.
payment or a fee calculated according to the number of lines of printed or written matter.
Simple“The journalist was paid a small lineage for every column he produced.”
In context“Before the shift to digital media, many freelance contributors relied on lineage as their primary method of calculating invoice totals.”
UsageIn modern publishing, 'word count' has largely replaced this system.
“Frogwares cut its teeth on Sherlock Holmes games, a lineage evident here in some clever puzzles that offer a reason to veer off the main path.”
“Then, from LUCA, the bacterial lineage evolved 21 unique ribosomal proteins, while the archaeal lineage evolved 29 unique ribosomal proteins.”
From Middle English linage, from Old French linage, from ligne, from Latin linea (“line”); equivalent to line + -age.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.