antecessor
"antecessor" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“antecessor” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person or thing that precedes or goes before.
Corpus desk
Index EN-antecessor · antecessor · English
antecessor · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | antecessor |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “antecessor” in English
Rare enough to double-check
antecessor is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
antecessor doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English antecessour, from Anglo-Norman antecessour, Middle French antecesseur, or their etymon Latin antecessor, a compound of ante + cedo + -tor; thus a doublet of ancestor. The correct English form is antecessor, spelled A-N-T-E-C-E-S-S-O-R.
Definition
- 1A person or thing that precedes or goes before.
- 2A person from whom one is descended.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how antecessor appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1671, Joseph Glanvill, A Præfatory Answer to Mr. Henry Stubbe, London: J. Collins, p. 57, […] the Waldenses[,] Antecessors of the Protestants
Yet who says, I have faith in the existence of George II., as his present Majesty’s antecessor and grandfather?
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English antecessour, from Anglo-Norman antecessour, Middle French antecesseur, or their etymon Latin antecessor, a compound of ante + cedo + -tor; thus a doublet of ancestor.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.