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
But economists argue the rupee's troubles predate the war and cannot be solved through austerity alone.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
The data also predate the war in Iran, which most analysts believe has pushed up prices significantly, particularly for fuel and some commodities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 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
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
The forecast predates Apple’s making public its plans to boost pricing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 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 cocktail that broke the internet predated the release of his foray into food TV: “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.”
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
His keen interest in the power of image far predated his rise to power.
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
The author emphasizes that by the 1950s, approximately 90% of Cuba’s mines were owned by U.S. companies, demonstrating a longstanding pattern of American economic domination that predated the rise of Fidel Castro and communism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2026
The markets on Khamenei had long predated the Feb. 28 strike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026
Drum towers and half-moons held up better against catapults, since thrown stones were more apt to deflect off a curved wall, but Raventree predated that particular bit of builder’s wisdom.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Google is already the subject of several formal DMA probes, and was hit with a massive 2.95 billion euro fine in September 2025 in an EU competition case predating the digital law.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
On 13 March 2025, bulldozers demolished homes in Gishiri, an indigenous community predating the FCT.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026
It lost $2 billion in 2001, with the vast majority of its problems predating the Sept. 11 attacks.
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 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.
