Antecedent
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.
- 2 the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun wordnet
- 3 An ancestor.
"The Boston agent added that this clerk was a young man of wholly unquestioned veracity and reliability, of known antecedents and long with the company."
- 4 a preceding occurrence or cause or event wordnet
- 5 A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun or other pro-form.
"[W]hereas it might seem orderly that, as who is appropriated to persons, so that should have been appropriated to things […] the antecedent of that is often personal"
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) wordnet
- 7 The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition, i.e. p→q, where p is the antecedent, and q is the consequent.
- 8 anything that precedes something similar in time wordnet
- 9 The first of two subsets of a sequent, consisting of all the sequent's formulae which are valuated as true.
- 10 The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a in the ratio a:b, the other being the consequent.
- 11 Previous principles, conduct, history, etc. in-plural
- 1 Earlier, either in time or in order. not-comparable
"an antecedent cause"
- 2 Presumptive. not-comparable
"an antecedent improbability"
- 1 preceding in time or order wordnet
Example
More examples"When the antecedent is this, that, these or those it is usual to use 'which'."
Etymology
From Middle English antecedent, borrowed from Old French antecedent, from Latin antecēdēns (“going before”), from antecēdō (“to precede; excel; surpass”).
Related phrases
More for "antecedent"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.