1
as in causes
someone or something responsible for a result
what are the antecedents of the American Revolutionary War?
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in forerunners
something belonging to an earlier time from which something else was later developed
the typewriter is the antecedent of the computer keyboard
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of antecedents
Many musical and social antecedents are responsible for its birth.
—
Literary Hub, 17 Feb. 2026
Went on to tackle malaria, and that process created both huge successes in modern public health, but also seeded the American public health system county by county across this country, and presented the antecedents of the Centers for Disease Control based in Atlanta.
—Christopher Dilella, CNBC, 17 Feb. 2026
The goal was to link American culture with its European antecedents—a heady way to justify shedding blood for another continent’s conflict.
—Colton Valentine, New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2026
For Ann Lee, an arthouse musical that counts among its closest antecedents Robert Eggers’ The Witch and the Björk-starring Dancer in the Dark, Blumberg reworked and retrofitted 10 traditional Shaker hymns, and recorded Seyfried and the other actors live on set.
—Walden Green, Pitchfork, 22 Jan. 2026
My poem works by multisequencing; in each of the three book-sections there are four narratives, and the reader must gather each piece of the narrative as it unspools and connect it to its antecedents—that yields compression.
—Ange Mlinko, The New York Review of Books, 23 Oct. 2025
The parallel plotlines involving Ali’s possible descendants and problematic antecedents, including a father (Ercan Kesal) who seems to be particularly abusive towards his wife, collide in highly unusual ways during the movie’s volatile second half.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Jan. 2025
Art-wise, there are antecedents.
—Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2025
Seeing around the bend in the river—or even knowing the river ahead does indeed bend—can require the sort of leap of faith that made Vannevar Bush insist that shamans, priests and spiritual seers are the antecedents of today’s engineering stars.
—IEEE Spectrum, 8 Aug. 2019
Literary Hub, 17 Feb. 2026
Went on to tackle malaria, and that process created both huge successes in modern public health, but also seeded the American public health system county by county across this country, and presented the antecedents of the Centers for Disease Control based in Atlanta.
—Christopher Dilella, CNBC, 17 Feb. 2026
The goal was to link American culture with its European antecedents—a heady way to justify shedding blood for another continent’s conflict.
—Colton Valentine, New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2026
For Ann Lee, an arthouse musical that counts among its closest antecedents Robert Eggers’ The Witch and the Björk-starring Dancer in the Dark, Blumberg reworked and retrofitted 10 traditional Shaker hymns, and recorded Seyfried and the other actors live on set.
—Walden Green, Pitchfork, 22 Jan. 2026
My poem works by multisequencing; in each of the three book-sections there are four narratives, and the reader must gather each piece of the narrative as it unspools and connect it to its antecedents—that yields compression.
—Ange Mlinko, The New York Review of Books, 23 Oct. 2025
The parallel plotlines involving Ali’s possible descendants and problematic antecedents, including a father (Ercan Kesal) who seems to be particularly abusive towards his wife, collide in highly unusual ways during the movie’s volatile second half.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Jan. 2025
Art-wise, there are antecedents.
—Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2025
Seeing around the bend in the river—or even knowing the river ahead does indeed bend—can require the sort of leap of faith that made Vannevar Bush insist that shamans, priests and spiritual seers are the antecedents of today’s engineering stars.
—IEEE Spectrum, 8 Aug. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for antecedents
Noun
-
This combination of an unstable base below a thick layer of unconsolidated fresh snow is one of the most dangerous causes of snow avalanches in the mountains, Swain says.—
Tom Metcalfe,
Scientific American,
18 Feb. 2026
-
The city said some of the causes for high bills are things like a running toilet , leaking faucets, Refrigerator/ice-maker line leak, washing machine hose leaks , irrigation leaks , pool filling, and pressure washing.—
Ted Scouten,
CBS News,
18 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
And these projects may just be the forerunners.—
Andy Sheehan,
CBS News,
17 Feb. 2026
-
With little support for the WHO among Republicans — who control both the House and the Senate — there has been no push from Congress to hold the country to the provision set out by their forerunners.—
Helen Branswell,
STAT,
21 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
This approach embodies the upstream vision of addressing social determinants of health—creating the conditions for people to thrive physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Feb. 2026
-
Plus there are topics in precalculus such as matrices, determinants, vectors and solving nonlinear systems of equations that students don’t need for Calculus I.—
Tammi Marshall,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
18 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
The further in the past your dog has purebred ancestors, the smaller the identical segments matching our reference dataset are.—
Michele Laufik,
Martha Stewart,
19 Feb. 2026
-
Being alone would’ve made our ancestors more vulnerable to, say, bears or lions.—
Erica Sloan,
SELF,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Built from abundant molecular precursors, these polymer systems offer intrinsic structural flexibility alongside tunable electrochemical properties.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
21 Feb. 2026
-
Rauschenberg’s approach was not without precursors.—
Scott Cantrell,
Dallas Morning News,
21 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Johnson’s predecessors, former mayors Lori Lightfoot and Rahm Emanuel, also paid their respects in Tuesday statements.—
Alice Yin,
Chicago Tribune,
17 Feb. 2026
-
After all, several of his most immediate predecessors left Wolves feeling that promises made on transfers had not been realised.—
Steve Madeley,
New York Times,
12 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Antecedents.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/antecedents. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.
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