precede

Formsprecedes, preceding, preceded

Pluralprecedes

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To come or go before something in time, order, or position.

   Two warning sirens precede every scheduled detonation at the quarry.

   A long drought preceded the famine of that year.

   Similarpredate, antedate, herald

   Oppositefollow, succeed, postdate

   Note

   Here the word does exactly what its parts say: Latin praecēdō joins prae- "before" to cēdō "go", reaching English through Middle French précéder. The going-before can be in place or in sequence. Fielding's basket-woman precedes the pomp at a coronation, while Milton's "harm precedes not sin" is about what comes first in a chain of cause. The participle can follow its noun, as in "the weeks preceding the diversions."

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To preface something by placing introductory material in front of it.

   The editors precede each report with a brief summary.

   He preceded his argument with a lengthy historical overview.

   Similarpreface, introduce, open, begin, prefix

   Oppositefollow, end, conclude

   Note

   The subject here is not what comes first but whoever arranges the order. You precede a speech with a toast, or, in James Kent's Commentaries on American Law (1832), precede hostilities by a public declaration. Either with or by introduces the material placed in front. It is the causative partner of the plain "go before" sense, because the object ends up preceded by something else.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To hold a higher rank or place in order of importance than another person or thing.

   By tradition, ambassadors precede other diplomats at state functions.

   The archbishop precedes the bishop in the church hierarchy.

   Similaroutrank

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A brief editorial preface placed before an article or essay.

   The editor wrote a sharp precede to frame the investigative piece.

   Readers skipped the precede and went straight to the report.

   Similarpreface, introduction, intro, standfirst, lead-in

   Note

   A noun made straight from the verb, it names the thing that goes before the main text. Its plural, precedes, is spelled exactly like the verb's third-person form. In "she precedes the piece" the word is a verb, while in "the magazine's precedes" it is a noun. The word in front, a subject or a possessive, is what tells the two apart.

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