What does preceded mean?
Word: Preceded
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Preceded means came or went before something else in time, order or place.
Synonyms: came before, led, went ahead of
Antonyms: succeeded
How do you spell preceded?
Syllables: pre - ced - ed
Tricky part: Students write preceeded with a double e in the middle; precede has only one e before the d. Do not mix it up with proceeded, which means went on.
Watch out for: preceeded, precided, precedded
Memory tip: Remember that one e is enough: precede, preceded and preceding never take a double e.
Preceded in a sentence
Example 1: The national anthem preceded the start of the match.
Example 2: A short prayer preceded the start of the school assembly.
Example 3: The monsoon was preceded by a week of hot, sticky weather.
Fun Fact
A flash of lightning seems to precede its thunder because light travels nearly a million times faster than sound.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
presceded
a) r
b) d
c) c
d) s
Show answer
d) s. Precede has a plain c straight after pre, with no s before it.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word preceded as it is used in the sentence:
A long drum roll preceded the magician's final trick.
a) introduced
b) followed
c) opened
d) heralded
Show answer
b) followed. Something that follows comes after; introduced, opened and heralded all suggest coming first.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
A loud crack of thunder decreped the heavy downpour.
a) receded
b) proceeded
c) preceded
d) prepared
Show answer
c) preceded. No o and no a appear in the jumble, and receded lacks the p - the thunder came before the rain.
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are spelt correctly and one is misspelt. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. preceded 2. disappeared 3. occured 4. accompanied
a) went somewhere with someone
b) took place or happened
c) came before something else
d) went out of sight
Show answer
b) took place or happened. Occur doubles its r before ed, giving occurred; occured keeps only one.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The mobile phone was preceded by ____.
a) the tablet computer
b) the smartwatch
c) the video call app
d) the landline telephone
Show answer
d) the landline telephone
2. A speech that is preceded by music ____.
a) starts after the music ends
b) ends with a song
c) is cut short by music
d) has music playing under it
Show answer
a) starts after the music ends
