Meanings
antirequisite1
plural antirequisites
- educationA previous course (or learning experience) that overlaps in content with a course offering such that students may not take that course offering for academic credit.
Antirequisites affect the availability of a course in the opposite direction; if the antirequisite of course A has been taken, then the student cannot enroll in course A.
2010, Austin L. Toombs, The impact of curriculum visualization on decision making among students: an honors thesis (HONRS 499) (Ball State University)2 more examples
. Some never stop talking about antirequisites. Others always advocate for splitting courses, and most get angry when the administration does not enforce prerequisites and corequisites.
2014, Julian Hermida, Facilitating Deep Learning, →ISBNThose indicating the student had taken a previous university French course were discarded, as were a small number of questionnaires indicating a Francophone family background (an antirequisite for both of these intermediate level courses)
2014, Kerry Lappin-Fortin, “Comparing written competency in core French and French immersion graduates”, in Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, volume 17, number 2 - broadlyA condition that prevents something from occurring.
The key result of this Letter, however, is that hierarchical structure formation is not an antirequisite for the successful formation of disks: the adoption of a plausible physical model for feedback can indeed regulate star formation and avoid catastrophic AM loss.
2001, RJ Thacker, HMP Couchman, “Star formation, supernova feedback, and the angular momentum problem in numerical cold dark matter cosmogony: halfway there?”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, volume 555, number 1
- not comparableActing as an antirequisite.
Indeed, while we can imagine providing such explanations or elaborations, they would seem to be antirequisite if the metaphor is to remain literarily pleasing or effective.
2010 March, Jan Zwicky, “Mathematical analogy and metaphorical insight”, in For the Learning of Mathematics, volume 30, number 1
antirequisite2
comparative more antirequisite · superlative most antirequisite
- managementCounter to human nature; tending to make people dysfunctional and to interfere with cooperation.
His book is about the conditions for requisite institutions and how to change antirequisite, “alienating, paranoiagenic, entropic” organizations.
1977 October, Noel Tichy, “A General Theory of Bureaucracy (Book review)”, in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science2 more examples
I have also learned that antirequisite social arrangements massively outweigh personality makeup in calling forth behaviors that reveal the primitive greed, and envy, and destructiveness—the capacity for evil split away in our inner lives.
2001, Elliott Jaques, The Life and Behavior of Living Organisms: A General Theory, →ISBNOn the other hand, anti-requisite organizations hinder and prevent the formation of normal relationships and are in fact 'paranoiagenic', that is, they create envy, hostile rivalry, and anxiety.
2014, Robert De Board, The Psychoanalysis of Organizations, →ISBN
Origin
antirequisite · noun, adjective
From anti- + requisite; in the education sense, contrasted with prerequisite.
Full word history & related roots →antirequisite · adjective
Coined by Elliott Jaques in contrast to his use of requisite to describe an organization that promotes positive and effective human interactions.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
antirequisite. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antirequisite
“antirequisite.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antirequisite. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “antirequisite,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antirequisite.
Source: antirequisite on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.