antecedent

1. not comparableEarlier, either in time or in order.

   an antecedent cause

   1 more example

   an event antecedent to the Biblical Flood

   Synonyms: precedent, predecessive, preceding · Antonyms: successive

2. not comparablePresumptive.

   an antecedent improbability

plural antecedents

1. Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.

   Synonyms: precedent, precursor

2. An ancestor.

   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.

   1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 3, in The Whisperer in Darkness

   Synonyms: ascendant, ascendent, forebear, forefather, forerunner, predecessor, progenitor

3. grammarA word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun or other pro-form.

   [W]hereas it might seem orderly that, as who is appropriated to persons, so that should have been appropriated to things […] the antecedent of that is often personal

   1926, H. W. Fowler, “that rel. pron.”, in A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, reprint of the first edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, published 2002, →ISBN, page 634, column 2

   1 more example

   One such condition can be formulated in terms of the c-command relation defined in (9) above: the relevant condition is given in (16) below: (16) C-COMMAND CONDITION ON ANAPHORS An anaphor must have an appropriate c-commanding antecedent

   1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 117

4. human sciencesThe conditional part of a hypothetical proposition, i.e. p→q, where p is the antecedent, and q is the consequent.
5. human sciencesThe first of two subsets of a sequent, consisting of all the sequent's formulae which are valuated as true.
6. mathematicsThe first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a in the ratio a:b, the other being the consequent.
7. in pluralPrevious principles, conduct, history, etc.