Pre-date or predate?
pre-date is a verb meaning “Alternative form of predate”; predate is a verb meaning “To designate a date earlier than the actual one; to move a date, appointment…”. pre-date is written with a hyphen and predate as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between pre-date and predate?
| pre-date | predate | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | verb, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative form of predate | To designate a date earlier than the actual one; to move a date, appointment, event, or period of time to an earlier point (contrast "postdate".) To exist or to occur before something else; to antedate A publication, such as a newspaper or magazine, that is issued with a printed date later than the date of issue |
| Example | none recorded | The Chinese use of Pascal's Triangle predates its discovery by Blaise Pascal |
| Forms | pre-dates, pre-dating, pre-dated | predates, predating, predated |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈpɹiːˌdeɪt/ /ˌpɹiːˈdeɪt/ /ˈpɹiˌdeɪt/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: pre-date and predate in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of pre-date and predate
pre-date
- 1
Alternative form of predate
- 2
Alternative form of predate
predate
- 1
To designate a date earlier than the actual one; to move a date, appointment, event, or period of time to an earlier point (contrast "postdate".)
- 2
A publication, such as a newspaper or magazine, that is issued with a printed date later than the date of issue
- 3
To prey upon something
- 4
To exist or to occur before something else; to antedate
The Chinese use of Pascal's Triangle predates its discovery by Blaise Pascal
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, pre-date or predate?
pre-date is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; predate about once in every 3 million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).