Dictionary Definition
antecedent adj : preceding in time or order [syn:
preceding] [ant:
subsequent]
Noun
1 someone from whom you are descended (but
usually more remote than a grandparent) [syn: ancestor, ascendant, ascendent, root] [ant: descendant]
2 a preceding occurrence or cause or event
3 anything that precedes something similar in
time; "phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience" [syn:
forerunner]
4 the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause
that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Translations
- German: früher, vorausgehend
- Portuguese: antecedente
Noun
- any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing
- one's ancestors
- a word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun
- In "The policeman asked the boy what he was doing" the phrase "the boy" is the antecedent of the pronoun "he".
- The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition
Related terms
Translations
any thing that precedes another thing
- French: antécédent
- Dutch: antecedent
- Portuguese: antecedente
- Swedish: föregångare
one's ancestors
- French: ascendant
- Portuguese: antecedentes m|p
a word, phrase or clause referred to by a
pronoun
- Finnish: korrelaatti
- French: antécédent
- German: Bezugswort
conditional part of a hypothetical proposition
- French: antécédent
- Portuguese: antecedente
- ttbc Ido : antecedanto
- ttbc Latin: antecedent
- ttbc Spanish: antecedente
Dutch
Pronunciation
- antecedent
Extensive Definition
An antecedent is a preceding event, condition,
cause, phrase, or word.
- Antecedent moisture is a hydrologic term describing the relative wetness condition of a sewershed.
- In logic, an antecedent is the first half of a hypothetical proposition.
- In grammar, an antecedent is the word to which a pronoun refers.
- A musical phrase (music) may be an antecedent or consequent phrase.
- In criminal cases, antecedents are the life history and previous convictions of a defendant.
- In behavioral research, an antecedent stimulus elicits a learned response from an organism.
- In drama and literature, the antecedent action is what occurs prior to the opening of a play or story.
See also
antecedent in German: Antezedens
antecedent in French: Antécédent
antecedent in Slovak: Antecedent
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
agency,
ancestor, ancestors, announcer, antecede, antecedents, antedate, anterior, anticipatory, ascendant, ascendants, avant-garde,
base, basis, bellwether, buccinator, bushwhacker, call, causation, cause, cause and effect, chief, ci-devant, determinant, determinative, earlier, early, elder, elders, element, etiology, exordial, explorer, factor, fathers, first, fore, forebear, forebears, forefather, forefathers, foregoer, foregoing, foremost, forerun, forerunner, former, front runner, frontiersman, fugleman, grandfathers, grandparents, ground, groundbreaker, grounds, guide, harbinger, heading, headmost, herald, inaugural, initiatory, innovator, instrumentality, lead
runner, leader, leading, means, messenger, occasion, older, pace, past, pathfinder, patriarchs, pioneer, point, precedent, preceding, precessional, precurrent, precursor, precursory, predate, predecessor, predecessors, preexistent, prefatory, preliminary, preludial, prelusive, premise, preparatory, prevenient, previous, prime, primogenitor, principle, prior, proemial, progenitor, progenitors, propaedeutic, prototype, reason, scout, senior, stimulus, stormy petrel,
trailblazer,
trailbreaker,
vanguard,
vaunt-courier, voortrekker