as in previous
existing at an earlier time; existing before something else
The insurance does not cover preexisting medical conditions. They made changes to the preexisting law.
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as in preceding
to go or come before in time
an advanced Mesoamerican civilization whose apex and collapse preexisted the arrival of Europeans by hundreds of years
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of preexisting
Mike Dojc, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Bottle episodes are designed to save money for more ambitious episodes elsewhere in a season through some combination of only using preexisting sets, hiring few (if any) guest actors, and not doing time-consuming set pieces.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2025
Hospitals and clinics across my district are seeing higher rates of respiratory distress, particularly among vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and those with preexisting conditions.
—Kenton Gewecke, ABC News, 4 Aug. 2025
My collaborators have preexisting software, which will, every night, get new observations of all the small bodies and objects in the solar system.
—Darryl Z. Seligman, The Conversation, 3 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for preexisting
Adjective
The winner of the Australian, Hong Kong, Japan, Scottish (merely formalizing a preexisting path) South African and Spanish Open will punch a ticket into both majors.
—Mike Dojc, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Bottle episodes are designed to save money for more ambitious episodes elsewhere in a season through some combination of only using preexisting sets, hiring few (if any) guest actors, and not doing time-consuming set pieces.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2025
Hospitals and clinics across my district are seeing higher rates of respiratory distress, particularly among vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and those with preexisting conditions.
—Kenton Gewecke, ABC News, 4 Aug. 2025
My collaborators have preexisting software, which will, every night, get new observations of all the small bodies and objects in the solar system.
—Darryl Z. Seligman, The Conversation, 3 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for preexisting
Recent Examples of Synonyms for preexisting
Adjective
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Police located a vehicle description and license plate associated with him from a previous call for service.—
Sydney Barragan,
Oc Register,
9 Jan. 2026
-
Founded and headquartered in Boise, Micron is Idaho’s largest for-profit employer, according to previous Statesman reporting.—
Darin Oswald,
Idaho Statesman,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The manager outlined his threat, having increased his interest in a player he, preceding that, had scant knowledge of.—
Jacob Tanswell,
New York Times,
7 Jan. 2026
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To that point, Lee stressed the importance of city names preceding a team name as a distinguishing factor.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
7 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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That’s because precedent changes in small but important ways all the time.—
Sonja Sharp,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Feb. 2025
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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
Adjective
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An initial target of £2,000 had doubled by the time Scunthorpe confirmed on Thursday that he had been discharged from hospital.—
Philip Buckingham,
New York Times,
8 Nov. 2025
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The initial childhood of Victor Frankenstein lends itself more to that age of enlightenment.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
8 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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This translation by Nancy Naomi Carlson preserves the rich musicality of the original French, as well as its frequent use of wordplay and often unusual word choice.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Nov. 2025
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Jim Carrey inducted Soundgarden, bringing out the late Chris Cornell’s eldest daughter, Lily Cornell Silver, to speak about her father and introduce a performance by his former Soundgarden bandmates, including original member Hiro Yamamoto, with Taylor Momsen and Brandi Carlisle singing vocals.—
Nicole Fell,
HollywoodReporter,
9 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Preexisting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/preexisting. Accessed 9 Jan. 2026.
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