antecessor

noun

Definition of antecessornext
as in predecessor

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of antecessor Like Homo antecessor, the Casablanca fossils have a mix of characteristics from Homo erectus, ourselves and our cousins. — CBS News, 8 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for antecessor
  1. predecessor
  2. ancestor
  3. progenitor
  4. grandfather
  5. forefather
  6. forebear
  7. forebearer
Noun
  • The increase in gray divorces might start to plateau when millennials – who got married under very different circumstances and social attitudes than their predecessors – start aging into retirement, said Park.
    — Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 26 July 2026
  • Additionally, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 improves on its predecessor with an IP69K rating for dust and splash endurance, and a new EN13319 certification for diving.
    — Andrew Gebhart, PC Magazine, 26 July 2026
Definition of predecessor
Noun
  • At some point in the mid-1850s, the river Padma suddenly carved a new path through the village of his ancestors in modern-day Bangladesh, flooding their homes and scattering them across the Indian subcontinent.
    — Robert Rubsam, The Atlantic, 20 July 2026
  • All across the United States, federal soldiers rounded up our Native American ancestors like cattle, pushing them into prison camps, many of which later became reservations.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 July 2026
Definition of ancestor
Noun
  • So perhaps a certain signaling molecule preferentially accumulates more on one side of a neural progenitor cell than the other.
    — Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 13 July 2026
  • Yet that same year, Brynjolfsson got access to GPT-3, a progenitor of ChatGPT.
    — Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 29 June 2026
Definition of progenitor
Noun
  • Collinson was introduced to Running 4 Heroes through his grandfather, Richard Collinson, who was a former volunteer EMS chief for Linwood Rescue Squad in South Jersey.
    — Elijah Megginson, AJC.com, 31 July 2026
  • Selling the place was impossible until the siblings could figure out what to do with their grandfather’s stuff, which wasn’t the usual matter of donating a few boxes and holding an estate sale.
    — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 30 July 2026
Definition of grandfather
Noun
  • Wulf pays overdue homage to an intellectual titan and forefather of linguistics and natural history.
    — Hamilton Cain, Time, 7 July 2026
  • But the truth is that our forefathers were sufficiently individualistic to be iconoclastic.
    — Colin Fleming, New York Daily News, 4 July 2026
Definition of forefather
Noun
  • Some of his forebears emigrated before the genocide; others barely got out.
    — Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 19 July 2026
  • Over the years, a number of prominent mathematicians tried to prove this guess of their forebears.
    — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 14 July 2026
Definition of forebear
Noun
  • Mike Brown said the digital driver license is the forebearer of discriminating against the unvaccinated.
    — Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 Feb. 2022
  • If successful, The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, named in honor of its famous nautical forebearer and known as MAS for short, will be the first such trans-Atlantic voyage by an autonomous vessel.
    — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 27 Nov. 2021
Definition of forebearer

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antecessor
antecessors
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Cite this Entry

“Antecessor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/antecessor. Accessed 1 Aug. 2026.

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