antedate
/ˈæntiˌdeɪt/verb, noun
antedate is a verb meaning “To occur before an event or time; to exist further back in time” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-N-T-E-D-A-T-E, and it appears about once in every 52 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does antedate mean?
verb
- 1
To occur before an event or time; to exist further back in time.
- 2
To assign a date to a document or action earlier than the actual date.
- 3
To find earlier citational evidence for a term.
noun
- 1
Prior date; a date antecedent to another which is the actual date.
- 2
obsoleteanticipation
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce antedate?
- UK /ˈæntiˌdeɪt/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-antedate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of antedate
- antedates present, singular, he/she/it
- antedating participle, present
- antedated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is antedate?
Antedate appears about once in every 52 million words in written English, the 225,584th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Antedate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does antedate come from?
From ante- + date.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).