1. an event or stimulus that precedes some other event or stimulus and often elicits, signals, or sets the occasion for a particular behavior or response. See also contingency.

2. in linguistics, the noun or noun phrase to which a pronoun (especially a relative pronoun, such as who, that, or which) refers back. For example, in the train that I caught yesterday, the antecedent of that is train. See anaphora.

3. See consequent.