antecedent to
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Wilson redefined “liberty” not as a natural right antecedent to the government, but as “the right of those who are governed to adjust government to their own needs and interests.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
“The profound historical antecedent to this is the bounties that state governments offered that allowed slaves to be retrieved if they fled,” said Charles Derber, a sociology professor at Boston College.
From Washington Post • Feb. 22, 2022
The study attempts to put a new spin on the Triassic period by positing that the evolutionary antecedent to future dinosaurs was literally quite small.
From Salon • Jul. 9, 2020
Perhaps the most relevant antecedent to the current circumstance is the Spanish Flu, which spanned the globe between 1918 and 1919.
From New York Times • Mar. 20, 2020
Begin it early, and do it well; and there is no antecedent to it, in any origin or station, that will tell against us with the Almighty, or with ourselves.”
From Dickens As an Educator by Hughes, James L. (James Laughlin)
