antecedent

 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++

Related topics: Linguistics, Grammar

an·te·ced·ent /ˌæntəˈsiːdənt/ noun [countable]  1  formalBEFORE an event, organization, or thing that is similar to the one you have mentioned but existed earlier 先例 historical antecedents 历史先例2. antecedents [plural] formalFAMILY the people in your family who lived a long time ago 祖先 SYN ancestors3. SL technical a word, phrase, or sentence that is represented by another word, for example a pronoun 先行语〔由代词等代替的单词、短语或句子〕 —antecedent adjective

Examples from the Corpus

antecedent• The Byrds are seen as an antecedent of bands like R.E.M.• Education business partnerships, though recent in their current form, have antecedents which it would be foolish to ignore.• Once the antecedents to their overdrinking are established, clients can begin to make systematic changes in these situational factors.• There were three distinctive characteristics about the archosaurs that paleontologists discovered marked them off from their antecedents.Origin antecedent (1300-1400) Latin present participle of antecedere, from ante- ( → ANTE-) + cedere “to go”

an·te·ced·ent nounChineseSyllable  

similar thing that or organization, event, is Corpus an

antecedent
an‧te‧ced‧ent /ˌæntəˈsiːdənt, ˌæntɪˈsiːdənt/ noun [countable]1. formal an event, organization, or thing that is similar to the one you have mentioned but existed earlier:
    historical antecedents
2. antecedents [plural] formal the people in your family who lived a long time ago
   SYN  ancestors
3. technical a word, phrase, or sentence that is represented by another word, for example a pronoun
—antecedent adjective