- a person who did a job before somebody else
- The new president reversed many of the policies of his predecessor.
- her immediate predecessor in the post
- my predecessor at the Ministry of Defence
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- a thing, such as a machine, that has been followed or replaced by something else
- This computer has a larger memory than its predecessor.
compare successor
Word Originlate Middle English: from late Latin praedecessor, from Latin prae ‘beforehand’ + decessor ‘retiring officer’ (from decedere ‘depart’).
Check pronunciation:
predecessor