forerunner

American  

[fawr-ruhn-er, fohr-, fawr-ruhn-er, fohr-] / ˈfɔrˌrʌn ər, ˈfoʊr-, fɔrˈrʌn ər, foʊr- /

noun

• forerunners
  plural

1. predecessor; ancestor; forebear; precursor.

2. an omen, sign, or indication of something to follow; portent.

   The warm evenings were a forerunner of summer.

3. a person who goes or is sent in advance to announce the coming of someone or something that follows; herald; harbinger.

4. the Forerunner, John the Baptist.

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forerunner British  

/ ˈfɔːˌrʌnə /

noun

1. a person or thing that precedes another; precursor

2. a person or thing coming in advance to herald the arrival of someone or something; harbinger

3. an indication beforehand of something to follow; omen; portent

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• forerunners
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of forerunner

First recorded in 1250–1300, forerunner is from the Middle English word forrenner. See fore-, runner

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Explanation

A forerunner is someone or something that came before and paved the way for something today. Rotary phones were forerunners of today's complex cell phones. The prefix fore- in forerunner is a clue that this word has to do with things that came before. A forerunner is someone from the past who preceded someone today, making new things possible. In the NBA, players like Wilt Chamberlain were forerunners of centers who played later. Early, gigantic computers were forerunners of today's sleek sophisticated computers. George Washington was a forerunner of every US president who has served since. Make sure to thank forerunners for paving the way for the rest of us slackers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

forerunner forerunners

Instead, a captain visited from Bletchley Park, the then-secret headquarters of the Government Code and Cypher School, the forerunner of GCHQ, and the base for Allied codebreaking.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

Leibowitz, who died May 6 at age 89, was a forerunner of the so-called quants, math whizzes who would become major factors in financial markets two decades later.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

Among the proclamations of the first French republic was an end to slavery in its island possessions—a forerunner of wider abolition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026

She made the leap to the small screen in the 1950s on Children's Television Club, a forerunner of Blue Peter.

From BBC ● May 22, 2026

The book described a variation oFchess that seemed to be the forerunner of Fischer Random, with the exact same rules.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Margaret and Alice are the forerunners of Lucy and Ethel, and Shakespeare’s comedy, written expressly to entertain, gives us a sense of what an Elizabethan-era situation comedy might look like.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

His 18th-century forerunners, the London macaroni and the Paris incroyable, had one foot in the court and the other in the city street, but the dandy, posh or not, lived in a middle-class, democratic society.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026

The flames would then be spread across the country for about 1,200 forerunners to relay.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2024

For our fruit-loving forerunners a few million years before we figured out cooking, a little squish was an easy cue that our food was ready to eat.

From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2024

But the new High group, unlike all its forerunners, did not act upon instinct but knew what was needed to safeguard its position.

From "1984" by George Orwell

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Related Words

• precursor

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