eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for forefather

3 headwords match “forefather”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The 3 strongest follow; forefæder ranks first.

  1. 1

    forefæder

    score 24

    noun, masculine · 6 inflected forms

    forefather — forefather

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular forefæder
    genitive singular forefæder, forefæderes
    dative singular forefæder, forefædere
    accusative singular forefæder
    nominative plural forefæderas
    genitive plural forefædera
  2. 2

    ærfæder

    score 15

    noun, masculine · 6 inflected forms

    forefather — forefather

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular ǣrfæder
    genitive singular ǣrfæder, ǣrfæderes
    dative singular ǣrfæder, ǣrfædere
    accusative singular ǣrfæder
    nominative plural ǣrfæderas
    genitive plural ǣrfædera
  3. 3

    forþfæder

    score 15

    noun, masculine · 4 inflected forms

    forefather — forefather, ancestor

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular forþfæder
    genitive singular forþfæder
    dative singular forþfæder
    accusative singular forþfæder
    nominative plural forþfæderas
    genitive plural forþfædera

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “forefather” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “forefather”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0