precursor
pre·cur·sor/pɹɪˈkɜɹ.səɹ/noun, adjective
precursor is spelled P-R-E-C-U-R-S-O-R, 3 syllables: pre·cur·sor. The wrong spelling people search most is precurser: about 110 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 19 of all searches for the word. Precursor is a noun meaning “That which precurses: a forerunner, predecessor, or indicator of approaching events”. The plural of precursor is precursors.
How many letters and syllables are in precursor?
| Letters | 9: P-R-E-C-U-R-S-O-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: pre·cur·sor |
| In writing | 2.8 times per million words; the 16,228th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, precurser, about 110 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell precursor?
Precursor is spelled P-R-E-C-U-R-S-O-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 19 of the searches for precursor in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is precursor?
Precursor appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th 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).
How do you pronounce precursor?
- UK /pɹɪˈkɜː.sə/
- UK /ˈpɹiːˌkɜː.sə/
- US /pɹɪˈkɜɹ.səɹ/
Precursor has 3 syllables, split pre·cur·sor in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-precursor.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Jjamesryan-precursor.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with precursor?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as precursor from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹsəɹ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of precursor
- precursors plural
- præcursor
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does precursor mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
That which precurses: a forerunner, predecessor, or indicator of approaching events.
- 2
One of the compounds that participates in the chemical reaction that produces another compound.
adjective
- 1
Caused by the following symbol.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Precursor in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | précurseur, précurseuse , réactif |
| German | Vorläufer, Vorgänger, Wegbereiter, Vorbote, Anzeichen, Vorreiter |
| Portuguese | precursor, precursora |
| Spanish | precursor |
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 precursor come from?
Inherited from Middle English precursour, from Middle French precurseur or its etymon Latin praecursor (“forerunner”). By surface analysis, precurse + -or.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).