Synonyms of precursors

precursors

noun

plural of precursor

1

as in forerunners

one that announces or indicates the later arrival of another

18th-century lyric poets like Robert Burns were precursors of the Romantics

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

2

as in ancestors

something belonging to an earlier time from which something else was later developed

a precursor of the modern eggplant

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of precursors

The ideology of Third Worldism and the New Agey, anything-goes-style progressivism of the West Coast that Naipaul so keenly lacerates were necessary precursors to the mass death in Guyana. — James Kirchick, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2026

Jack Kilby, the inventor of the integrated circuit, or microchip, and the handheld calculator—early precursors of AI. — Jordan Blum, Fortune, 8 Aug. 2026

There had been precursors to Five Star Weekend and Ride Or Die‘s breakthrough. — Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 4 Aug. 2026

Laboratory demonstrations have already shown production pathways for lubricant precursors, munition components, active pharmaceutical ingredients, bioplastics, and single-cell proteins. — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 24 July 2026

In this study, published last month in Science, researchers found that as mice got close to the end of their pregnancies, placental levels of NAD+ and its precursors dropped off fast. — Maggie Ryan, Flow Space, 20 July 2026

The faction’s precursors backed ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Muhammad’s son-in-law and cousin, immediately after Muhammad’s death in 632. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 July 2026

Comets are also rich with organic compounds that could serve as precursors for biochemistry. — Darryl Z. Seligman, Scientific American, 10 July 2026

These two motivations – toward others and toward disagreement – are precursors to civility. — Deborah Mower, The Conversation, 2 July 2026