| ancestor | 1. One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a fore father. 2. <biology> An earlier type; a progenitor; as, this fossil animal is regarded as the ancestor of the horse. 3. One from whom an estate has descended; the correlative of heir. Origin: OE. Ancestre, auncestre, also ancessour; the first forms fr. OF. Ancestre, F. Ancetre, fr. The L. Nom. Antessor one who goes before; the last form fr. OF. Ancessor, fr. L. Acc. Antecessorem, fr. Antecedere to go before; ante before + cedere to go. See Cede, and cf. Antecessor. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| leading edge | The initial part of a wave form at maximum slope. (05 Mar 2000) |
| leading lamella | <cell biology> Anterior region of a crawling cell, such as a fibroblast, from which most cytoplasmic granules are excluded. (18 Nov 1997) |
| leading strand | The DNA strand that is synthesised continuously during replication Compare: lagging strand. (09 Oct 1997) |