precursor

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: prĭ-kûr′sər, prē′kûr′sər
• (Received Pronunciation, Australia) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈkɜː.sə/, /ˈpɹiːˌkɜː.sə/

  Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  Audio (Brisbane):

  (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈkɜɹ.səɹ/, /ˈpɹiˌkɜɹ.səɹ/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkøː.sɐ/, /ˈpɹiːˌkøː.sɐ/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈkʌɹ.səɹ/, /ˈpɹiˌkʌɹ.səɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɜːsə, -iːkɜːsə
• Hyphenation: pre‧cur‧sor

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English precursour, from Middle French precurseur or its etymon Latin praecursor (“forerunner”). By surface analysis, precurse +‎ -or.

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) præcursor

Noun

precursor (plural precursors)

2. 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.

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

Derived terms

• bioprecursor
• cardioprecursor
• myoprecursor
• nanoprecursor
• neuroprecursor
• nonprecursor
• oligoprecursor
• osteoprecursor
• precursor enzyme
• precursorial
• precursorship
• 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, precursora f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 先驅 / 先驱 (zh) (xiānqū)

• Czech: předchůdce (cs) m
• Dutch: precursor (nl) m, voorloper (nl) m
• Finnish: edeltäjä (fi), edelläkävijä (fi)
• 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: please add this translation if you can

  Ancient Greek: πρόδρομος m (pródromos)

• Hungarian: előfutár (hu)
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: 前兆 (ja) (ぜんちょう, zenchō), 先駆者 (ja) (せんくしゃ, senkusha)
• Kazakh: ізашар (izašar)
• 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)
• Occitan: precursor m, precursora f
• Polish: prekursor (pl) m, prekursorka (pl) f
• Portuguese: precursor (pt) m, precursora f
• Romanian: precursor (ro) m, precursoare (ro) f
• 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
• Tamil: முன்னோடி (ta) (muṉṉōṭi)
• Turkish: öncül (tr)
• Ukrainian: попере́дник m (poperédnyk), попере́дниця f (poperédnycja), предте́ча (uk) m or f (predtéča)
• Zulu: imvula (zu) class 9/10

chemical compound

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: изходно вещество n (izhodno veštestvo)
• Catalan: precursor m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 前體 / 前体 (zh) (qiántǐ)

• Czech: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: precursor (nl) m
• Finnish: esiaste
• French: réactif (fr) m, précurseur (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Edukt (de) n, Vorläufer (de) m, Präkursor (de) m, Vorform f, Vorprodukt n, Vorläuferverbindung f, Vorläufersubstanz f, Vorstufe (de) f
• Greek: please add this translation if you can

  Ancient Greek: please add this translation if you can

• 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)
• Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 전구체 (jeon'guche)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: please add this translation if you can

• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Occitan: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: prekursor (pl) m
• Portuguese: precursor (pt) m
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: предше́ственник (ru) m (predšéstvennik), реакти́в (ru) m (reaktív)
• Spanish: precursor (es) m
• Swedish: prekursor c
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *per-

Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-

Proto-Indo-European *-i

Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i?

Proto-Italic *prai

Proto-Italic *prai-

Latin prae-lbor.

Middle English pre-

English pre-

English cursor

English precursor

From pre- + cursor.

Adjective

precursor (not comparable)

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

   Antonym: postcursor

See also

• ISI

Further reading

• “precursor”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “precursor”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Intersymbol interference on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• procurers

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin praecursōrem.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pre‧cur‧sor

Adjective

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

1. precursory (relating to events that will follow)

Noun

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

1. precursor (forerunner, predecessor)

Further reading

• “precursor”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “precursor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “precursor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “precursor”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praecursor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /preːˈkʏr.sɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʏrsɔr
• Hyphenation: pre‧cur‧sor

Noun

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

1. precursor (forerunner, predecessor)

   Synonym: voorloper

2. (chemistry) precursor (chemical compound)

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

• Audio (Béarn):

  (file)

Noun

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

1. precursor (forerunner, predecessor)

Further reading

• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana‎^[1], L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2026, page 552

Portuguese

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *per-

Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-

Proto-Indo-European *-i

Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i?

Proto-Italic *prai

Proto-Italic *prai-

Latin prae-

Proto-Indo-European *ḱers-

Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥séti

Proto-Italic *korsō

Latin currō

Latin praecurrō

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin praecursōremlbor.

Portuguese precursor

Learned borrowing 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]
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /pɾe.kuɻˈsoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾɨ.kuɾˈsoɾ/

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

• Hyphenation: pre‧cur‧sôr

Noun

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

1. precursor (forerunner, predecessor)
2. (chemistry) precursor (chemical compound)

Related terms

• cursor

Adjective

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

1. precursory (relating to events that will follow)

Further reading

• “precursor”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “precursor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French précurseur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pre.kurˈsor/
• Rhymes: -or
• Hyphenation: pre‧cur‧sor

Noun

precursor m (plural precursori, feminine equivalent precursoare)

1. precursor (forerunner, predecessor)

Declension

	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) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *per-

Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-

Proto-Indo-European *-i

Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i?

Proto-Italic *prai

Proto-Italic *prai-

Latin prae-

Proto-Indo-European *ḱers-

Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥séti

Proto-Italic *korsō

Latin currō

Latin praecurrō

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin praecursōremlbor.

Spanish precursor

Learned borrowing 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 (relating to events that will follow)

Noun

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

1. precursor (forerunner, predecessor)
2. (chemistry) precursor (chemical compound)

Related terms

• cursor

Further reading

• “precursor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 24th edition, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 30 October 2026
• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “precursor”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA