Definition of PREDECESSOR

Examples of predecessor in a Sentence

Today's computers are much faster than their predecessors were. the once-ubiquitous typewriter was the predecessor of today's electronic keyboard

Recent Examples on the Web The games on the court had been overshadowed by the deaths of Kobe Bryant and David Stern, Silver’s predecessor. — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, "Zion Williamson Is More Than a Walking Mixtape," 22 Feb. 2020 Woodfin inherited this conundrum from his predecessor. — Kyle Whitmire, al, "New Alabama monuments bill puts Birmingham mayor on the spot," 16 Feb. 2020 Louisville Courier Journal FRANKFORT — New Kentucky Board of Education members met for a standard business meeting on Tuesday, unhindered by a legal challenge from their predecessors that may threaten their authority. — Olivia Krauth, The Courier-Journal, "Federal judge sets hearing in injunction request from ousted Kentucky school board members," 4 Feb. 2020 Trump’s selections differ markedly from his predecessors in that a majority of his recipients – eight out of 15 – have been athletes. — Christopher Devine, The Conversation, "What is the Presidential Medal of Freedom?," 4 Feb. 2020 The name change, introduced in 2016, was designed to differentiate a new iteration of 737s from its predecessor, the 737 Next Generation (commonly known as the NG). — Natasha Frost, Quartz, "Should Boeing rename the 737 Max?," 21 Jan. 2020 New managers tend to be different from their predecessors if only because teams go in a different direction for a clean slate. — John Shea, SFChronicle.com, "Why Astros and Red Sox should hire managers such as Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker," 14 Jan. 2020 His ability to make light of situations, and spew self-deprecating comment after self-deprecating comment, was a marked difference from his predecessor. — Jori Epstein, USA TODAY, "'I wanted the job': Mike McCarthy confesses he fibbed in Dallas Cowboys interview with Jerry Jones," 9 Jan. 2020 However, Ustonson reels also received royal warrant from her predecessors, King George IV and his younger brother, King William IV. — Colin Moore, Outdoor Life, "12 Awesome, Old-School Reels That Changed How We Fish," 22 Nov. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'predecessor.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Learn More about predecessor

Dictionary Entries near predecessor

Statistics for predecessor

Last Updated

25 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Predecessor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/predecessor. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.

The magician ______ moved the selected card to the top of the deck.

discreetly discretely

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ

predecessor