precede

It’s just the preceding rising action that feels a bit underwhelming.

What made them extraordinary were the events that preceded them.

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Graham said Mr Rogers had been "ostracised" in the preceding days after a woman expressed discomfort about a sexual encounter between the pair.

Rather surprisingly, the obligatory face-to-face between Tyson and Paul ended without any drama, but there was already enough of that in the hour and half that preceded it.

But this is preceded by perimenopause, a phase of gradual decline in reproductive hormones that can last from anywhere between two to 10 years.