antecedent

  • (a) preceding in time or order

Nouns

  • (n) someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) ancestor, ascendant, ascendent, root,
  • (n) a preceding occurrence or cause or event
  • (n) anything that precedes something similar in time
    • phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience
    forerunner,
  • (n) the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun

Synonyms

ancestor ascendant ascendent root forerunner

Antonyms

descendant descendent subsequent

See also

preceding

Words of close approximity

antecedently