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Definition of "lineal" []

  • Belonging to or being in the direct line of descent from an ancestor. (adjective)
  • Derived from or relating to a particular line of descent; hereditary. (adjective)
  • Linear. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "lineal" in a sentence
  • "It has rarely happened that a crown has been transmitted from father to son, in lineal descent, for seventeen reigns."
  • "After the death of the younger Romanus, the fourth in lineal descent of the Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively married Nicephorus Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two heroes of the age."
  • "Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of the royal line of the Amali, 1 was born in the neighborhood of Vienna 2 two years after the death of Attila."