antecedent

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

“He felt like a direct historical antecedent to the Rupert Pupkins and Travis Bickles of the world. He fell through the cracks and we lost potentially one of our greatest presidents because of it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2025

Arm in arm with this, and less discussed, is the death of deductive logic, the ability to understand cause and effect by composing simple conditional arguments with an antecedent and a consequent.

From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2025

They found that physical frailty can be an indicator of future social isolation over time and that loneliness may be both an antecedent and an outcome of frailty.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024

When phrases come in pairs like this, the first phrase is called the antecedent phrase, and the second is called the consequent phrase.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

While going rather easy on King George, Ms. Worsley is dismayed by the strategy of her antecedents, whose tactics often seemed calculated to fan the sputtering flames of rebellion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026

The current wave of activism, he observes, is not so different from its antecedents.

From Salon ● May 2, 2024

“If I do something that shocks me or that I’m not proud of, I’m able to frame that behaviorally and sort of understand the antecedents, the behavior itself and then the consequence,” she said.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2023

None of the possible antecedents are reproduced exactly.

From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2023

It is something of a puzzle that the word ‘experiment’ did not come with it, despite its respectable Latin antecedents.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton