forerunner (n.)

  1. a person who goes before or announces the coming of another

    [ Syn: precursor ]

  2. something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone

    [ Syn: harbinger , predecessor , herald , precursor ]

  3. anything that precedes something similar in time; phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience

    [ Syn: antecedent ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.