FORERUNNERS Synonyms: 54 Similar and Opposite Words

forerunners

noun

plural of forerunner

as in precursors

one that announces or indicates the later arrival of another the return of the swallows is traditionally regarded as a forerunner of spring

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

as in ancestors

something belonging to an earlier time from which something else was later developed enjoyed the demonstration of the simple hand loom that was the forerunner of today's computer-controlled looms

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 forerunners Margaret and Alice are the forerunners of Lucy and Ethel, and Shakespeare’s comedy, written expressly to entertain, gives us a sense of what an Elizabethan-era situation comedy might look like. — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2026 One of the forerunners today in Madeira and the Azores is António Maçanita from Azores Wine Company. — Forbes.com, 20 July 2026 Even the Hammurabi Code, a set of laws created by the sixth Babylonian king in approximately 1760 bce, established forerunners of today’s interest rate and minimum wage laws. — Chris Roush, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Apr. 2026 The Norwegian ended his season before the Olympics to further recover from a shoulder injury, but attended the finals as one of the forerunners, who test a course shortly before a race starts. — ABC News, 22 Mar. 2026 These were the forerunners of today’s robots. — Munis Raza, Interesting Engineering, 9 Mar. 2026 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 Like these forerunners, the pleasures of Knight’s A Thousand Blows, which premiered all six episodes of its second season on Hulu Friday, lies in looking back on that thin sliver of time, about 15 years ago, when anachronistic old-timey crime was in vogue. — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for forerunners

Noun

This event, which resulted in the death of enslaver Edward Gorsuch, heightened tensions between the North and South and was one of the many precursors to the American Civil War.

— Arizona Republic, AZCentral.com, 11 Sep. 2026
Two other groups received Lasker Awards, which are often precursors for Nobel Prizes.

— O. Rose Broderick, STAT, 10 Sep. 2026

Definition of precursors

Noun

Culture and History Crows and ravens have similarly eerie reputations as spooky harbingers of death or danger.

— Blythe Copeland, Martha Stewart, 31 Aug. 2026
Our results, just published in the journal Science, suggest that the 1982-83 and 1997-98 El Niños – two of the strongest in recent memory – may be harbingers of more extreme events to come as the planet warms.

— Julia Cole, The Conversation, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of harbingers

Noun

Courtesy Rockaway Film Festival The space certainly feels scrappier than the black-and-white photos of its predecessors.

— Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Sep. 2026
The processor also uses square-lattice architecture wherein most qubits are connected to four nearest qubits, an improvement over its predecessors.

— Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 3 Sep. 2026

Definition of predecessors

Noun

The project heralds from Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four co-directors behind 2025 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

— Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 24 Aug. 2026
Now Pedicularis had emerged as one of the first heralds of the Arctic summer, its stems wrapped in grayish, silky hairs that protect it like a warm winter coat.

— Denise Hruby, Miami Herald, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of heralds

Noun

Her fantastical Biblical scenes, of a graphic, storybook sensibility, sometimes showed angels, and Christ himself, as chalky white, and this rang in some Black critical circles as a sign of backwater unsophistication.

— Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2026
That kind of detail says so much more than cliches about angels or clouds.

— Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 1 Sep. 2026

Definition of angels

Noun

Tentative signs of improvement emerged in May, June and July, when border crossings picked up slightly, the agency reported.

— Rio Yamat, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2026
Next, another set of no-parking signs went up and came down (except for several that were mistakenly left up), with no work having been done.

— Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 6 Sep. 2026

Definition of signs

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“Forerunners.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/forerunners. Accessed 15 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of forerunners

noun

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