1. antecedent - Noun
2. antecedent - Adjective
Going before in time; prior; anterior; preceding; as, an event antecedent to the Deluge; an antecedent cause.
Presumptive; as, an antecedent improbability.
That which goes before in time; that which precedes.
One who precedes or goes in front.
The earlier events of one's life; previous principles, conduct, course, history.
The noun to which a relative refers; as, in the sentence "Solomon was the prince who built the temple," prince is the antecedent of who.
The first or conditional part of a hypothetical proposition; as, If the earth is fixed, the sun must move.
The first of the two propositions which constitute an enthymeme or contracted syllogism; as, Every man is mortal; therefore the king must die.
The first of the two terms of a ratio; the first or third of the four terms of a proportion. In the ratio a:b, a is the antecedent, and b the consequent.
Source: Webster's dictionarywhen we gaze in unbounded admiration on that ineffable mercy of His, which with unwearied patience endures countless sins which are every moment being committed under His very eyes, or the call with which from no antecedent merits of ours, but by the free grace of His pity He receives us. John Cassian
Morality, as has often been pointed out, is antecedent to religion-it even exists in a rudimentary form among animals. Herbert Read
I consider criticism merely a preliminary excitement, a statement of things a writer has to clear up in his own head sometime or other, probably antecedent to writing; of no value unless it come to fruit in the created work later. Ezra Pound
I say RIGHTS, for such they have, undoubtedly, antecedent to all earthly government, - Rights, that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws - Rights, derived from the great Legislator of the universe. John Adams
Freedom in not a luxury that we can indulge in when at last we have security and prosperity and enlightenment; it is, rather, antecedent to all of these, for without it we can have neither security nor prosperity nor enlightenment. Henry Steele Commager
In selecting human assistants such superficialities as education, as physical strength, even antecedent morality, are not as important as the inner attitudes, proclivities, character, which after all determine the man or woman. Harrington Emerson