A descendant is someone who comes from a particular person or group of people who lived in the past. You are a descendant of your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, and so on back through time. Your children and grandchildren will be your descendants.

The word traces forward through family lines. If you're studying the American Revolution and learn that someone is a descendant of George Washington, that means Washington is their ancestor (someone they descend from), and they are his descendant (someone who came after him in the family line). Every person alive today is a descendant of people who lived hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Scientists use the word more broadly too. They might say that modern birds are descendants of dinosaurs, meaning birds evolved from dinosaur ancestors over millions of years. In this sense, descendants can refer to any living thing that came from earlier forms of life.

The opposite of descendant is ancestor. Your ancestors came before you; your descendants come after you. When historians talk about someone's descendants, they're often discussing how a family line continued through history or how ideas and traditions passed from one generation to the next.