a preceding thing, event, or circumstance
(+ of/to) a model or stimulus for later developments
(in pl) family origins; ancestry
(in pl) a person's social background, history, etc
a word, phrase, or clause functioning as a noun and referred to by a pronoun
in logic, the premise of a conditional proposition, e.g. if A in the proposition if A, then B: compare consequent2
the first term of a mathematical ratio
[Middle English via medieval Latin from Latin antecedent-, antecedens something that goes before, from antecēdere to precede, from ante- + cēdere to go]