Antecedent | Mean of antecedent in English Dictionary
/ˌæntəˈsiːdənt/
- Noun
- a word or phrase that is represented by another word (such as a pronoun)
- “John” is the antecedent of the pronoun “him” in “Mary saw John and thanked him.”
- something that came before something else and may have influenced or caused it
- The events were antecedents of/to the war. [=the events helped to cause the war]
- the antecedents of rap music [=music that came before and influenced rap music]
- the people in a family who lived in past times
- He is proud of his Scottish antecedents. [=(more commonly) ancestors]
- earlier in time
- These antecedent [=prior, previous] events affected the outcome of the war.
