predate
Americanverb
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to affix a date to (a document, paper, etc) that is earlier than the actual date
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to assign a date to (an event, period, etc) that is earlier than the actual or previously assigned date of occurrence
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to be or occur at an earlier date than; precede in time
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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predatesimple
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predatessimple
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have predatedperfect
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has predatedperfect
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am predatingprogressive
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are predatingprogressive
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is predatingprogressive
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have been predatingperfect progressive
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has been predatingperfect progressive
Past
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predatedsimple
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had predatedperfect
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was predatingprogressive
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were predatingprogressive
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had been predatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of predate
Explanation
To predate is to happen or exist before something else. If you move into a house that already has a ghost, the ghost predates you. Boo! If your interest in soul music predates your sister's, you loved it first. When you use predate this way, you can read it as a combination of pre-, "before," and date, "point in time." Another meaning of this verb is "to prey on for food," so you could say that your cat predates the mice that live in your kitchen. This definition stems from predator, from the Latin praedator, "plunderer."
Vocabulary lists containing predate
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.
See Examples For:
Their experiments suggest that the attraction to crystals may have deep evolutionary origins that predate modern humans.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
Other buyers would say, however, that such issues long predate the current soccer bonanza.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
South Africa's laws prohibiting hate speech and incitement to violence mostly predate modern social media platforms, said Kimal Harvey, an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
But Kamran Bokhari, senior fellow at the Middle East Policy Council, said Iran's economic struggles, which predate the war, could hamper efforts to fully rebuild military capability.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
There are Mesopotamian inscriptions referring to Venus that predate the time when Velikovsky says Venus changed from a comet into a planet.’
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
In fact, the process far predates the modern primary and was long a staple of how parties chose candidates.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
Every initiative of Musk’s that succeeded predates the pandemic.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
While AI has made it easier for some firms to automate tasks entry-level workers once did to kick-start their careers, the research found the uptick in youth unemployment predates AI making its way across industries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
But the decline in numbers predates the recent conflict, which begs the question: why are foreign visitors, who've patronised the relaxed budget getaway since the hippie heyday of the 1960s and 1970s, now turning away?
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
I don’t feel I’m being disloyal to Ben, only loyal to something else; which predates him, which has nothing to do with him.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
The arrival of both ships in America predated the English Civil War, which lasted from 1642 to 1651.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
The cocktail that broke the internet predated the release of his foray into food TV: “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.”
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
In an interview, Rose-Perfito, 29, argued that the speed running trend predated the dare post and rejected the legal threat from Scientology.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
The Luddite movement, which predated the Swing Riots, was led by textile workers convinced that power-operated looms would permanently impoverish the middle class.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
They were a danger; Ethel wanted them gone, but they had been his father’s and predated their residence in the house so Martin figured they could deny ownership.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
The play, which takes place in the period predating smartphones, offers a microcosm of American life, not unlike the Grover’s Corners of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” before our brains were all rewired.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
It lost $2 billion in 2001, with the vast majority of its problems predating the Sept. 11 attacks.
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2025
Survey response rates have dramatically declined External link in recent years, predating the Covid-19 pandemic.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2025
My father died leaving an old will predating his fourth wife.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2025
Moreover, there was an even more elemental understanding implicitly codified in Philadelphia but actually predating the Constitutional Convention by many years.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
