precursor

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːˌkɜː.sə(ɹ)/, /pɹɪˈkɜː.sə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (Brisbane):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːˌkɜɹ.səɹ/, /pɹɪˈkɜɹ.səɹ/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin praecursor (“forerunner”). See precurse, and refer to -or.

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) præcursor

Noun

precursor (plural precursors)

1. That which precurses: a forerunner, predecessor, or indicator of approaching events.
   • 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist:

     Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: […] . The evolutionary precursor of photosynthesis is still under debate, and a new study sheds light. The critical component of the photosynthetic system is the “water-oxidizing complex”, made up of manganese atoms and a calcium atom.

2. (chemistry) One of the compounds that participates in the chemical reaction that produces another compound.

Derived terms

• precursor tip
• precursory

Related terms

• cursor

Translations

forerunner, predecessor

Albanian: pris Bengali: অগ্রদূত (bn) (ogrodut) Bulgarian: предшественик (bg) m (predšestvenik), предвестник (bg) m (predvestnik) Catalan: precursor m Chinese: Mandarin: 先驅 / 先驱 (zh) (xiānqū) Czech: předchůdce (cs) m Dutch: voorloper (nl) m French: précurseur (fr) m, précurseuse (fr) f Georgian: წინამორბედი (c̣inamorbedi) German: Vorläufer (de) m, Vorgänger (de) m, Wegbereiter (de) m, Vorbote (de) m, Anzeichen (de) n, Vorreiter (de) m, Präkursor (de) m, Amtsvorgänger (de) m Greek: Ancient Greek: πρόδρομος m (pródromos) Hungarian: előfutár (hu) Japanese: 前兆 (ja) (ぜんちょう, zenchō), 先駆者 (ja) (せんくしゃ, senkusha) Kazakh: ізашар (ızaşar) Korean: 선구자 (ko) (seon'guja) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: pêşeng (ku) m or f, pêşrew (ku) m or f Macedonian: претходник m (prethodnik), предвесник m (predvesnik) Polish: prekursor (pl) m, prekursorka (pl) f Portuguese: precursor (pt) m Russian: предше́ственник (ru) m (predšéstvennik), предше́ственница (ru) f (predšéstvennica), предве́стник (ru) m (predvéstnik), предве́стница (ru) f (predvéstnica) Spanish: precursor (es) m Swedish: förelöpare (sv), föregångare (sv) c Turkish: öncül (tr) Ukrainian: попере́дник m (poperédnyk), попере́дниця f (poperédnycja), предте́ча (uk) m or f (predtéča) Zulu: imvula (zu) class 9/10

chemical compound

Bulgarian: изходно вещество n (izhodno veštestvo) Chinese: Mandarin: 前體 / 前体 (zh) (qiántǐ) Dutch: precursor (nl) m Finnish: esiaste French: réactif (fr) m, précurseur (fr) m German: Edukt (de) n, Vorläufer (de) m, Präkursor (de) m, Vorform f, Vorprodukt n, Vorläuferverbindung f, Vorläufersubstanz f, Vorstufe (de) f Hungarian: prekurzor Indonesian: prekursor (id) Italian: precursore (it) Japanese: 前駆物質 (ぜんくぶっしつ, zenku-busshitu), 前駆体 (ぜんくたい, zenku-tai) Korean: 전구체 (jeon'guche) Polish: prekursor (pl) m Portuguese: precursor (pt) Russian: предше́ственник (ru) m (predšéstvennik), реакти́в (ru) m (reaktív) Spanish: precursor (es)

Etymology 2

From pre- +‎ cursor.

Adjective

precursor (not comparable)

1. (telecommunications, of intersymbol interference) Caused by the following symbol.

   Antonym: postcursor

See also

• ISI

References

• “precursor”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “precursor”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Intersymbol interference on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• procurers

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praecursōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [pɾə.kurˈso]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pɾe.kuɾˈsoɾ]

Adjective

precursor (feminine precursora, masculine plural precursors, feminine plural precursores)

1. precursory, preceding

Noun

precursor m (plural precursors, feminine precursora)

1. precursor

Further reading

• “precursor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “precursor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “precursor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “precursor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin praecursor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /preˈkʏrsɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

precursor m (plural precursors or precursoren, diminutive precursortje n)

1. precursor, forerunner

Descendants

• → Indonesian: prekursor

Further reading

• “precursor” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]

Occitan

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Noun

precursor m (plural precursors, feminine precursora, feminine plural precursoras)

1. forerunner, precursor

Further reading

• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2024, page 552.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praecursōrem.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pɾe.kuʁˈsoʁ/ [pɾe.kuhˈsoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pɾe.kuʁˈsoʁ/ [pɾe.kuhˈsoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /pɾe.kuɾˈsoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /pɾe.kuʁˈsoʁ/ [pɾe.kuχˈsoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /pɾe.kuɻˈsoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾɨ.kuɾˈsoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾɨ.kuɾˈsoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾɨ.kuɾˈso.ɾi/

• Hyphenation: pre‧cur‧sor

Noun

precursor m (plural precursores, feminine precursora, feminine plural precursoras)

1. precursor; forerunner (something that led to the development of another)

Related terms

• cursor

Adjective

precursor (feminine precursora, masculine plural precursores, feminine plural precursoras)

1. precursory (pertaining to events that will follow)

Further reading

• “precursor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French précurseur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pre.kurˈsor/

Noun

precursor m (plural precursori, feminine equivalent precursoare)

1. precursor

Declension

Declension of precursor

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	precursor	precursorul		precursori	precursorii
genitive-dative	precursor	precursorului		precursori	precursorilor
vocative	precursorule			precursorilor

Further reading

• precursor in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praecursōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɾekuɾˈsoɾ/ [pɾe.kuɾˈsoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: pre‧cur‧sor

Adjective

precursor (feminine precursora, masculine plural precursores, feminine plural precursoras)

1. precursory, preceding

Noun

precursor m (plural precursores, feminine precursora, feminine plural precursoras)

1. precursor, forerunner

Related terms

• cursor

Further reading

• “precursor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10