PREDECESSORS Synonyms: 26 Similar and Opposite Words

predecessors

noun

plural of predecessor

as in forerunners

something belonging to an earlier time from which something else was later developed the once-ubiquitous typewriter was the predecessor of today's electronic keyboard

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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 predecessors Much of coaching football is taking ideas from your predecessors and adopting them as your own with a personal twist. — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 2 Oct. 2026 Williams and James entered the season under a lot of scrutiny given the impact their predecessors, Love and Jadarian Price, made last season on the Notre Dame offense. — Colleen Kane, Chicago Tribune, 2 Oct. 2026 Destined for the Italian Navy, the U212NFS submarines class represents a substantial evolution compared to to its U212A predecessors. — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 2 Oct. 2026 Presidents angled for monuments honoring their predecessors, not themselves. — Rachel Treisman, NPR, 28 Sep. 2026 First, though, Sauermann and Pham began the way their predecessors had. — Shalma Wegsman, Quanta Magazine, 28 Sep. 2026 But like their gourmand counterparts, the newest skin scent releases offer more olfactory complexity than their predecessors. — Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 28 Sep. 2026 Peng has embraced a more public role than her predecessors, who rarely attended state visits and usually stayed in the background. — ABC News, 24 Sep. 2026 Unlike many of its fall festival predecessors (including TIFF proper for the first time this year), NYFF doesn’t have a market per se. — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 24 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for predecessors

Noun

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, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026

Definition of forerunners

Noun

The discovery led to a complete redesign of the project, shifting the hotel inland to preserve the sacred site and honor the ancestors who remain there.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Oct. 2026
The small, troubled Trask family represents isolation, generational trauma and dysfunctional cycles in contrast to the large, loving and morally grounded Hamilton family, who are modeled after Steinbeck’s own maternal ancestors.

— Senior Television, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of ancestors

Noun

Ng, who is Jo Henderson’s oncologist, noted that her previous research found that women who ate more ultraprocessed foods had a higher risk of colon polyps that can be precursors to cancer.

— Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC news, 2 Oct. 2026
The coal and steel organization was the first among European institutions that were precursors to what eventually became the European Union.

— ABC News, ABC News, 28 Sep. 2026

Definition of precursors

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predecessor

predecessors

predestinate

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“Predecessors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/predecessors. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of predecessors

noun

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