ANTECEDENT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does antecedent mean? 

• ANTECEDENT (noun)
  The noun ANTECEDENT has 4 senses:

1. someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

2. a preceding occurrence or cause or event

3. anything that precedes something similar in time

4. the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun

  Familiarity information: ANTECEDENT used as a noun is uncommon.

• ANTECEDENT (adjective)
  The adjective ANTECEDENT has 1 sense:

1. preceding in time or order

  Familiarity information: ANTECEDENT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ANTECEDENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

ancestor; antecedent; ascendant; ascendent; root

Hypernyms ("antecedent" is a kind of...):

relation; relative (a person related by blood or marriage)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "antecedent"):

ancestress (a woman ancestor)

forbear; forebear (a person from whom you are descended)

father; forefather; sire (the founder of a family)

foremother (a woman ancestor)

primogenitor; progenitor (an ancestor in the direct line)

Derivation:

antecedent (preceding in time or order)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A preceding occurrence or cause or event

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("antecedent" is a kind of...):

cause (events that provide the generative force that is the origin of something)

Derivation:

antecede (be earlier in time; go back further)

antecedent (preceding in time or order)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Anything that precedes something similar in time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Synonyms:

antecedent; forerunner

Context example:

phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience

Hypernyms ("antecedent" is a kind of...):

temporal relation (a relation involving time)

Derivation:

antecedent (preceding in time or order)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("antecedent" is a kind of...):

referent (something referred to; the object of a reference)

Derivation:

antecedent (preceding in time or order)

• ANTECEDENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Preceding in time or order

Similar:

anterior; prior (earlier in time)

anticipatory; prevenient (in anticipation)

pre-existent; pre-existing; preexistent; preexisting (existing previously or before something)

Also:

preceding (existing or coming before)

Antonym:

subsequent (following in time or order)

Derivation:

antecedence; antecedency (preceding in time)

antecedent (the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun)

antecedent (a preceding occurrence or cause or event)

antecedent (someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent))

antecedent (anything that precedes something similar in time)

 Context examples 

The brother, on his arrival in England, had imprudently placed himself in the power of Latimer and of his associate, whose name was Wilson Kemp—a man of the foulest antecedents.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Without any antecedent knowledge, without any warning whatever that such existed, he found himself an explorer in a totally new world.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It can be considered a higher grade variant of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) and it can present de novo or progress from antecedent LCH.

(Langerhans Cell Sarcoma, NCI Thesaurus/WHO)

Clinical course usually progresses to acute myeloid leukemia though most epipodophyllotoxin-related leukemias do not have an antecedent myelodysplastic phase.

(Epipodophyllotoxin-Related Myelodysplastic Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

The Lascar was known to be a man of the vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair’s story, he was known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few seconds of her husband’s appearance at the window, he could hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was without antecedents.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He told me all this very much later, but I've put it down here with the idea of exploding those first wild rumors about his antecedents, which weren't even faintly true.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)