antecedent

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Going before; preceding.
2. n. One that precedes another.
3. n. A preceding occurrence, cause, or event. See Synonyms at cause.
4. n. The important events and occurrences in one's early life.
5. n. One's ancestors.
6. n. Grammar The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to, as the children in The teacher asked the children where they were going.
7. n. Mathematics The first term of a ratio.
8. n. Logic The conditional member of a hypothetical proposition.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Being before in time, place, rank, or logical order; prior; anterior; as, an event antecedent to the deluge.
2. n. One who or that which goes before in time or place.
3. n. In grammar: The noun to which a relative, pronoun refers: as, Solomon was the prince who built the temple, where the word prince is the antecedent of who. Formerly, the noun to which a following pronoun refers, and whose repetition is avoided by the use of the pronoun.
4. n. In logic: That member of a conditional proposition of the form, “If A is, then B is,” which states, as a hypothesis, the condition of the truth of what is expressed in the other member, termed the consequent: in the proposition given the antecedent is “if A is.” The whole proposition amounts to the statement that all possible cases of the truth of the antecedent are included among the possible cases of the truth of the consequent.
5. n. The premise of a consequence, or syllogism in the first figure with the major premise suppressed. Thus, the argument, “A syllogism has never existed in sensu, therefore it does not exist in intellectu,” is a consequence, its premise is the antecedent, and its conclusion the consequent.
6. n. An event upon which another event follows. So used particularly by nominalists. An invariable antecedent, with J. S. Mill, is an event upon which another follows according to an invariable rule or uniformity of nature. It does not, therefore, mean (as might be supposed) an event of a kind which antecedes every occurrence of another kind of event. Thus, lightning is not an invariable antecedent of thunder, for thunder does not always follow it; and this although lightning antecedes thunder whenever thunder is heard.
7. n. In mathematics, the first of two terms of a ratio, or that which is compared with the other. Thus, if the ratio is that of 2 to 3, or of a to b, 2 or a is the antecedent.
8. n. In music, a passage proposed to be answered as the subject of a fugue.
9. n. plural The earlier events or circumstances of one's life; one's origin, previous course, associations, conduct, or avowed principles.
10. In physical geography, noting rivers or streams which have persisted in their courses in spite of an uplift of the land: thus the Meuse is an antecedent river, because it has persisted in its course by cutting a deep gorge through the uplifted area of the Ardennes.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Earlier, either in time or order.
2. n. Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.
3. n. An ancestor.
4. n. grammar A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun.
5. n. logic The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition.
6. n. mathematics The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a in the ratio a:b, the other being the consequent.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Going before in time; prior; anterior; preceding.
2. adj. Presumptive.
3. n. That which goes before in time; that which precedes.
4. n. obsolete One who precedes or goes in front.
5. n. The earlier events of one's life; previous principles, conduct, course, history.
6. n. (Gram.) The noun to which a relative refers.
7. n. The first or conditional part of a hypothetical proposition; as, If the earth is fixed, the sun must move.
8. n. The first of the two propositions which constitute an enthymeme or contracted syllogism; as, Every man is mortal; therefore the king must die.
9. n. (Math.) 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
2. n. the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun
3. n. anything that precedes something similar in time
4. n. a preceding occurrence or cause or event
5. adj. preceding in time or order