MEANING
1. Something that comes before a later development and prepares for it, influences it, or signals its approach.
2. A substance or cell from which another substance or cell is formed.
Use it for
identifying an earlier institutional form; tracing influences on a later intellectual movement; distinguishing an early sign from an established causeSeparates something that prepares or signals a later development from an immediate trigger. Academic functions: Causation / Relationships.
Words that belong together
- a precursor to reform
- a precursor of a movement
- an early precursor
On the page
The historian treats the association as a precursor to the later institution, not as an identical organization.
Earlier narrative experiments served as precursors of the form examined in the chapter.
The review distinguishes a biochemical precursor from a catalyst that speeds the conversion.
The diagram follows the precursor cell through the stages that produce the later cell type.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- precursor
Usage notes
Countable: precursor, precursors. Both precursor to and precursor of are established. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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