predecessor

American  

[pred-uh-ses-er, pred-uh-ses-er, pree-duh-ses-er] / ˈprɛd əˌsɛs ər, ˌprɛd əˈsɛs ər, ˈpri dəˌsɛs ər /

noun

predecessors plural

1. a person who precedes another in an office, position, etc.

2. something succeeded or replaced by something else.

   The new monument in the park is more beautiful than its predecessor.

3. Archaic. an ancestor; forefather.

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predecessor British  

/ ˈpriːdɪˌsɛsə /

noun

1. a person who precedes another, as in an office

2. something that precedes something else

3. an ancestor; forefather

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• predecessors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of predecessor

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English predecessour, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin praedēcessor, from Latin prae- pre- + dēcessor “retiring official” (equivalent to dēcēd(ere) “to withdraw” + -tor -tor; see de-, cede)

Explanation

A predecessor is something that came before the current version. The person you replaced at work is your predecessor, just like Pac Man is the predecessor of modern video games. If you break the word predecessor down to its Latin roots, you get pre, meaning "beforehand," and decessor, which means "retiring officer." So that's how we get to our definition of "someone who has held an office or position before the present holder." But predecessors aren't just found in the business world: these days predecessors include our ancestors, earlier car models, and all kinds of other forerunners.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

predecessor predecessors

Peter Moores did the job twice, while Chris Silverwood was McCullum's predecessor.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

Perhaps the new “Moana” isn’t exactly the same as its predecessor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

In case you don’t make it to the end, “Along the Way” is a duet between Laga’aia’s sunny new Moana and her predecessor, Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced the original character.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Once broadly available, Terra will be priced at half the cost of its predecessor GPT-5.5, OpenAI has said, as it seeks to lock in customers amid fierce competition from Anthropic and Google.

From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026

That Beethoven changed the way society viewed composers should not cloud our judgement of his brilliant predecessor who sought and gave one thing: pleasure.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Powell stepped up the frequency of press conferences to every meeting in January 2019 — a change from his two immediate predecessors, who held them four times a year.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026

On the eve of Independence Day, Trump will give a speech beneath the giant granite heads of four of his legendary predecessors at the national monument in South Dakota.

From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026

Stewart, who has written a book on Canadian prime ministers, said Carney's predecessors who have dealt over the decades with deep provincial frustrations have had to work to bring them back into the fold.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

Warsh hasn’t been as forthcoming as his predecessors in his public pronouncements on the economy.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026

We may be even less willing to face the issue at first hand than our predecessors because of a secret new hope that maybe it will go away.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

Related Words

• ancestor
• forebear