PREDECESSOR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does predecessor mean? 

• PREDECESSOR (noun)
  The noun PREDECESSOR has 2 senses:

1. one who precedes you in time (as in holding a position or office)

2. something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone

  Familiarity information: PREDECESSOR used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PREDECESSOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

One who precedes you in time (as in holding a position or office)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

forerunner; precursor (a person who goes before or announces the coming of another)

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

forefather (person from an earlier time who contributed to the tradition shared by some group)

Derivation:

precede (be the predecessor of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

forerunner; harbinger; herald; precursor; predecessor

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

indicant; indication (something that serves to indicate or suggest)

 Context examples 

This rigorous research supported the conclusions of its predecessor, who appeared to have a poorer working memory for participants with higher BMI.

(Obesity Can Affect Kids’ Working Memory, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A new study has shown how some early predecessors of proteins may have fallen into line.

(Pre-life building blocks spontaneously align in evolutionary experiment, National Science Foundation)

So, here was another earthquake of which I became the sport, before I had recovered from the shock of its predecessor!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

ABT-806 is the humanized version derived from the predecessor chimeric monoclonal antibody 806.

(Indium In 111 Anti-EGFR Monoclonal Antibody ABT-806, NCI Thesaurus)

Because my predecessor, the American Maple White, actually made such an ascent.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Anti-CD22 immunotoxin CAT-8015 exhibits a greater affinity for CD22 than its predecessor, anti-CD22 immunotoxin CAT-3888 (BL22 immunotoxin), and hence may be more effective against tumor cells expressing lower levels of CD22.

(Moxetumomab Pasudotox, NCI Thesaurus)

The next day was as fine as its predecessor: it was devoted by the party to an excursion to some site in the neighbourhood.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Thus as my predecessor weakened his practice declined, until when I purchased it from him it had sunk from twelve hundred to little more than three hundred a year.

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

Further comparative studies focusing on other distantly related land plants and their aquatic algal predecessors should reveal even more information about the evolution and role of these vital gene families.

(Ancient defence strategy continues to protect plants from pathogens, University of Cambridge)

When it was found I could neither understand nor be understood, I was conducted by his order to an apartment in his palace (this prince being distinguished above all his predecessors for his hospitality to strangers), where two servants were appointed to attend me.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)