Synonyms of forerunners

forerunners

noun

plural of forerunner

1

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

• precursors
• harbingers
• heralds
• angels
• outriders
• signs
• symptoms
• messengers
• foregoers
• foretastes
• advertisers
• runners
• proclaimers
• forewarnings
• criers
• auspices
• announcers
• couriers
• foreshadowings
• portents
• foreshadowers
• forebodings
• omens
• presages
• bodings
• foreboders
• bellwethers
• auguries
• blazoners
• marks

2

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

• precursors
• ancestors
• predecessors
• prototypes
• originators
• antecedents
• originals
• granddaddies
• archetypes
• models
• mothers
• daddies
• foregoers
• fathers
• sires

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• descendants
• derivatives
• sons
• offshoots
• daughters
• outgrowths
• by-products
• spin-offs

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of forerunners

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

The primacy of a central meeting space can be traced to the Greek Empire with the agora, among other forerunners. — Jeanne Bonner, CNN Money, 19 Dec. 2025

Compared to their forerunners in the tsarist era, with their party congresses held abroad, their executive committees, and their active recruitment in imperial Russia’s universities, Soviet dissidents remained a comparatively small and informal conglomeration of activists. — Benjamin Nathans september 24, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025