ANTECEDENT

Antecedent

In grammar, an antecedent is an expression that gives its meaning to a proform . A proform takes its meaning from its antecedent, e.g. Susan arrived late because traffic held her up. The pronoun her refers to and takes its meaning from Susan, so Susan is the antecedent of her. Proforms usually follow their antecedents, but sometimes they precede them, in which case one is, technically, dealing with postcedents instead of antecedents. The prefix ante- means 'before, in front of', and post- means 'after, behind'. The term antecedent stems from traditional grammar. The ...

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antecedent

Noun

  1. Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.
  2. An ancestor.
  3. A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun.
  4. The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition.
  5. The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a in the ratio a:b, the other being the consequent.

Adjective

  1. Earlier, either in time or order.
    an event antecedent to the Biblical Flood
    an antecedent cause
  2. presumptive
    an antecedent improbability


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: antecedent
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