- preceding
- preceding, antecedent, precedent, foregoing, previous, prior, former, anterior are comparable when they mean being before, especially in time or in order of arrangement.Preceding, opposed to succeeding and following, is restricted to time and place; it usually means immediately before{
the preceding day
}{the preceding clause
}{events preceding the opening of the story
}Antecedent, opposed to subsequent and consequent, usually implies order in time, but unlike preceding, it often suggests an indefinite intervening interval{events antecedent to the opening of the story
}{Chaucer's poems were written in a period antecedent to the Elizabethan Age
}Very often, also, the word implies a causal or a logical, as well as a temporal, relation{to understand the success of modern dictators we must have a knowledge of antecedent conditions
}{a conclusion is based on a chain of antecedent inferences
}Precedent often applies to one thing which must precede another thing if the latter is to be valid or become effective; thus, a condition precedent in law is a condition that must be fulfilled before an estate can be vested in one or before a right accrues to one.Foregoing, opposed to following, applies almost exclusively to statements{the foregoing citations
}{the foregoing argument
}Previous and prior, opposed to subsequent, are often used almost interchangeably{his life previous to his marriage
}{this will cancels all prior wills
}But prior sometimes implies greater importance than previous; thus, a previous obligation suggests merely an obligation entered into earlier in point of time, whereas a prior obligation is one which surpasses the other in importance and must be fulfilled in advance of any other; a prior preferred stock is one whose claim to dividends or to a specified sum in liquidation comes before other preferred stocks of a company.Former, opposed to latter, even more definitely than prior, implies comparison; thus, there can be a former engagement only when there is also a later one; a previous or prior engagement may prevent one's making a second.Anterior, opposed to posterior, also comparative in force, applies to position, usually in space, sometimes in order or time{the anterior lobe of the brain
}{Organization must presuppose life as anterior to it— Coleridge
}Antonyms: following
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.