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
Those tests predate modern technology, as many court reporters now use audio recordings as a backup, says Allie Hall, a certified court reporter who runs a training program with about 800 enrollees currently.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
Had the king had them carved when he built the clock tower, or did they predate it?
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
Every initiative of Musk’s that succeeded predates the pandemic.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
The site has been dated to about 5,000 years old, which predates Stonehenge by 500 years.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
This view long predates Vladimir Putin’s rise, beginning early in the post-Soviet period.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
But his wish list of non-woke repertory, which also included Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera, draws on an attachment that predates his entry into national politics: Broadway musicals.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
Use of the word “upset” in this sense predates that race.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Hickman, now owned by meatpacking giant JBS and Brazilian egg supplier Mantiqueira, said the alleged conduct predated their late-2025 acquisition of the company, but that the settlement resolves all allegations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Jackson was not at Neverland during the raid that predated his charges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 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
Tiger Global said its Flipkart investments predated the change and, therefore, qualified for the exemption.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2026
But de Vries’s conjecture predated the molecular definition of the gene.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
It lost $2 billion in 2001, with the vast majority of its problems predating the Sept. 11 attacks.
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2025
Read: My father died leaving an old will predating his fourth wife.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2025
Survey response rates have dramatically declined External link in recent years, predating the Covid-19 pandemic.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2025
Although his production had tailed off the past few years, Joey Bosa was a stalwart for this team since 2016, predating the club’s move to Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 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.
