From Middle English antecedent, borrowed from Old French antecedent, from Latin antecēdēns, from antecēdō.

• IPA: /ˌæntɪˈsiːdənt/

antecedent (not comparable)

1. Earlier, either in time or in order.

   Synonyms: precedent#Adjective, predecessive, preceding

   Antonyms: successive

   an antecedent cause

   an event antecedent to the Biblical Flood

2. Presumptive.

   an antecedent improbability

• French: antécédent
• German: früher, vorausgehend, vorgängig, voriger, vorige, voriges, vorangehend, vorgängig, vorrangig, vorhergehend, vor-
• Italian: antecedente
• Portuguese: antecedente
• Russian: предше́ствующий
• Spanish: antecedente

antecedent (plural antecedents)

1. Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.
2. An ancestor.
   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 3, in The Whisperer in Darkness:

     The Boston agent added that this clerk was a young man of wholly unquestioned veracity and reliability, of known antecedents and long with the company.

3. (grammar) A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun.
4. (logic) The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition, i.e. p \rightarrow q, where p is the antecedent, and q is the consequent.
5. (logic) The first of two subsets of a sequent, consisting of all the sequent's formulae which are valuated as true.

6. (math) The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a in the ratio a:b, the other being the consequent.
7. (mostly, in the plural) Previous principles, conduct, history, etc.

• (something which precedes) precedent, precursor
• (an ancestor) ascendant, ascendent, forebear, forefather, forerunner, predecessor, progenitor

• (antonym(s) of “in logic”): consequent, (for sequents) succedent
• (antonym(s) of “in grammar”): anaphor

• French: antécédent
• German: Vorgeschichte, Ursache, Vorleben, Vorangehende, Vorhergehende, Antezedenz, Vorläufer, Vorstufe, Vorform
• Italian: antecedente
• Portuguese: antecedente
• Spanish: antecedente

• French: ascendant
• German: Ahne, Vorläufer, Vorfahre, Vorfahr, Uhrahn, Uhrahne, Stammvater, Ahn, Ahnin, Ahne
• Italian: antenato, progenitore
• Portuguese: antecedente, ancestral, antepassado
• Spanish: antecedente, antepasado, ancestro

• French: antécédent
• German: Beziehungswort, Bezugselement, Antezedens, Bezugswort
• Italian: antecedente
• Portuguese: antecedente
• Spanish: antecedente

• French: antécédent
• German: Antezedens
• Italian: antecedente
• Portuguese: antecedente
• Spanish: antecedente