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# precede

«precede» in Mova's school dictionary: **To come or go before something in time, order or place** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (precede, precedes, preceded, preceding)

### meaning for a pupil

(formal) To come or go before something in time, order or place. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In maths it helps with order: in a number line, 4 precedes 5; the number that precedes 10 is 9. In grammar, an article precedes a noun. In history and exam questions, «the events that preceded the war» means what happened first. Phrases: the preceding page, preceded by.

### examples

- Lightning precedes thunder. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#x1)
- In the alphabet, A precedes B. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#x2)
- The number that precedes 100 is 99. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#x3)
- The main show was preceded by a short film. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#x4)
- Read the preceding paragraph again. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#x5)
- A short silence preceded the cheers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#x6)
- She became united to Erebus, and their children were Aether and Hemera (Air and Daylight), evidently a simile of the poets, to indicate that darkness always precedes light. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/#x7)

### note

Do not confuse with proceed (go on). Precede = come before; proceed = continue. The noun is precedence. In maths problems, «precedes» means one less (or earlier) in a counting order.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «precede» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/precede/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.