FORERUNNER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does forerunner mean? 

• FORERUNNER (noun)
  The noun FORERUNNER has 3 senses:

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

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

3. anything that precedes something similar in time

  Familiarity information: FORERUNNER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORERUNNER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who goes before or announces the coming of another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

forerunner; precursor

Hypernyms ("forerunner" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "forerunner"):

predecessor (one who precedes you in time (as in holding a position or office))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

forerunner; harbinger; herald; precursor; predecessor

Hypernyms ("forerunner" is a kind of...):

indicant; indication (something that serves to indicate or suggest)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Anything that precedes something similar in time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Synonyms:

antecedent; forerunner

Context example:

phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience

Hypernyms ("forerunner" is a kind of...):

temporal relation (a relation involving time)

 Context examples 

It seemed like the forerunner of something absolutely serious, which she did not wish.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It will be the forerunner also of other interesting events: your sister's marriage, and your taking orders.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

This is one of a growing number of examples where looking at wild relatives and forerunners of our domesticated crops is giving us back some of the important genetic information that had been unintentionally tossed aside, says Clifford Weil of NSF's Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.

(Harvesting genes to improve watermelons, National Science Foundation)

He had begun to romp with them in a feeble, awkward way, and even to squabble, his little throat vibrating with a queer rasping noise (the forerunner of the growl), as he worked himself into a passion.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“I have here in front of me these singular productions, at which one might smile, had they not proved themselves to be the forerunners of so terrible a tragedy. I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyze one hundred and sixty separate ciphers, but I confess that this is entirely new to me. The object of those who invented the system has apparently been to conceal that these characters convey a message, and to give the idea that they are the mere random sketches of children.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)