| Antecedent 1. (a.) Going before in time, place or rank; prior; anterior; preceding; as, an event antecedent to the Deluge; an antecedent cause. 2. (a.) Presumptive; as, an antecedent improbability. 3. (n.) That which goes before in time; that which precedes. 4. (n.) One who precedes or goes in front. 5. (n.) The earlier events of one's life; previous principles, conduct, course, history. 6. (n.) The noun to which a relative refers; as, in the sentence Solomon was the prince who built the temple, prince is the antecedent of who. 7. (n.) The first or conditional part of a hypothetical proposition; as, If the earth is fixed, the sun must move. 8. (n.) The first of the two propositions which constitute an enthymeme or contracted syllogism; as, Every man is mortal; therefore the king must die. 9. (n.) The first of the two terms of a ratio; the first or third of the four terms of a proportion. In the ratio a:b, a is the antecedent, and b the consequent. Thesaurus Entries agency, ancestor, ancestors, announcer, antecede, antecedents, antedate, anterior, anticipatory, ascendant, ascendants, avant-garde, base, basis, bellwether, buccinator, bushwhacker, call, causation, cause, cause and effect, chief, ci-devant, determinant, determinative, earlier, early, elder, elders, element, etiology, exordial, explorer, factor, fathers, first, fore, forebear, forebears, forefather, forefathers, foregoer, foregoing, foremost, forerun, forerunner, former, front runner, frontiersman, fugleman, grandfathers, grandparents, ground, groundbreaker, grounds, guide, harbinger, heading, headmost, herald, inaugural, initiatory, innovator, instrumentality, lead runner, leader, leading, means, messenger, occasion, older, pace, past, pathfinder, patriarchs, pioneer, point, precedent, preceding, precessional, precurrent, precursor, precursory, predate, predecessor, predecessors, preexistent, prefatory, preliminary, preludial, prelusive, premise, preparatory, prevenient, previous, prime, primogenitor, principle, prior, proemial, progenitor, progenitors, propaedeutic, prototype, reason, scout, senior, stimulus, stormy petrel, trailblazer, trailbreaker, vanguard, vaunt-courier, voortrekker |