precursor
precursors
You've heard the old saying "Pride comes before the fall?" Well, you could just as easily say pride is a precursor to the fall. A precursor is something that happens before something else.
You don't have to be a dead languages scholar to guess that this word springs from a Latin source — praecursor, "to run before." A precursor is usually related to what it precedes. It's a catalyst or a harbinger, leading to what follows or providing a clue that it's going to happen. Binging on holiday candy is a precursor to tummy aches and promises to exercise more. Draconian policies in unstable nations are often a precursor to rebellion.
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something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone
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synonyms:
forerunner, harbinger, herald, predecessor
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types:
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bellwether
a predictor of indicator of future trends
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type of:
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indicant, indication
something that serves to indicate or suggest
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bellwether
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a person who goes before or announces the coming of another
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synonyms:
forerunner
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types:
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predecessor
one who precedes you in time (as in holding a position or office)
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forefather
person from an earlier time who contributed to the tradition shared by some group
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predecessor
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a substance from which another substance is formed (especially by a metabolic reaction)
Vocabulary lists containing precursor
This list of intermediate words features a mixture of easier and more difficult words that you may be less familiar with. Study these words and watch your GRE score grow.
Sixteen-year-old Mim runs away from her father's home and goes on a long, eventful bus journey to find her mother.
This nonfiction account traces the history of basketball through the U.S. team's first Olympic competition, in pre-World War II Germany.
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