as in previous
going before another in time or order
behavior that may be explained by a precedent event in her troubled life
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Recent Examples of precedent
This adaptation demands re-conceiving large chunks of plot from the ground-up while retaining Liu’s themes, not to mention visualizing concepts with less precedent onscreen than the fantasy tropes Martin deployed and subverted.
—
Alison Herman, Variety, 9 Mar. 2024
Judge Barrett did not entirely embrace the notion of super-precedent.
—Jonathan Turley, WSJ, 15 Oct. 2020
Many legal scholars question the basis for declaring an ever-wider array of cases to be super-precedent as a way to protect favored rulings.
—Jonathan Turley, WSJ, 15 Oct. 2020
Britain has no clear privacy law, so precedent matters.
—The Economist, 3 Oct. 2019
See All Example Sentences for precedent
Alison Herman, Variety, 9 Mar. 2024
Judge Barrett did not entirely embrace the notion of super-precedent.
—Jonathan Turley, WSJ, 15 Oct. 2020
Many legal scholars question the basis for declaring an ever-wider array of cases to be super-precedent as a way to protect favored rulings.
—Jonathan Turley, WSJ, 15 Oct. 2020
Britain has no clear privacy law, so precedent matters.
—The Economist, 3 Oct. 2019
See All Example Sentences for precedent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for precedent
previous
Adjective
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This could involve cleaning up data for specific use cases, like using real-life data from previous customer interactions to train AI agents for customer care relations.—
Imran Aftab,
Forbes.com,
17 June 2025
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July 2023 Thankfully, Rice has performed much better than Arsenal’s previous record signing, Nicolas Pepe, a winger who cost them £72million in summer 2019.—
The Athletic UK Staff,
New York Times,
17 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Precedent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/precedent. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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