forerunner
noun
predecessor; ancestor; forebear; precursor.
forerunners
-
pluralof forerunner.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
