MEANING
To die before another person who remains alive at the time of that death.
Use it for
saying which person died first; describing a parent surviving a child; explaining an order of deaths in a family history; specifying a beneficiary who dies before someone elseStates the order of two deaths precisely, without implying that one death caused the other. Writing functions: Death / Mortality.
Words that belong together
- predecease a spouse
- predecease a parent
- predecease the testator
On the page
Her younger brother predeceased her by almost twenty years.
The family record notes that both children predeceased their mother.
Word forms
- Base
- predecease
- Past tense
- predeceased
- Past participle
- predeceased
- Present participle
- predeceasing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- predecease
- Present continuous
- am/is/are predeceasing
- Present perfect
- have/has predeceased
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been predeceasing
- Past
- predeceased
- Past continuous
- was/were predeceasing
- Past perfect
- had predeceased
- Past perfect continuous
- had been predeceasing
- Future
- will predecease
- Future continuous
- will be predeceasing
- Future perfect
- will have predeceased
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been predeceasing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Transitive verb: predecease someone. Forms: predeceases; predeceased; predeceased; predeceasing. The subject dies first; the object survives them. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon outside formal, biographical, and legal writing (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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