ante
UK/ˈænti//ˈænti/
ante preposition: synonym of before, earlier in time, particularly used in historical dating.
Preposition
ante
- Synonym of before, earlier in time, particularly used in historical dating.
- The wall was built at some time a. 1400.
- Synonyms:
- before, earlier in time, particularly used in historical dating
Noun
ante (plural antes)
- A price or cost, as in up the ante.
- “… There was a man who always painted marble seats and another who did nothing but sheep. So a fellow I knew determined only to paint backs. Men's backs, women's backs, girls' backs and boys backs. … his best known bacchante was described by a critic as all back and no ante, but his backs became...1936, Herbert Adams, chapter 2, in A Word of Six Letters
- When it came to the more successful contestants, meanwhile, edits of the shows also began to fall heavily on sad backstories – the "sob story", if you will – instilling the idea that singers had to mine trauma from their lives to up the emotional ante, making them seem to be more "worthy" winners.2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How talent shows became TV's most bizarre programmes”, in BBC
- In poker and other games, the contribution made by all players to the pot, often before dealing all the cards.
Verb
ante (third-person singular simple present antes, present participle anteing, simple past and past participle anted or anteed)
Proper noun capitalized: Ante
Ante (plural Antes)
- A surname.
ante meaning in Tamil and Urdu
ante in Tamil
- முந்திய, முன்னால், மேலே, எதிர், முன்
ante in Urdu
- ante, payment
- ادائی adāī
Examples of ante in a sentence
- The blinds are $10 and $20, and the ante is $1.
- With three aces and two jacks, he thought it was safe to up the ante.
- When runners cross-train for events, they often up the ante by running on sand.
Synonyms of ante
- before
- earlier in time
- particularly used in historical dating
Forms of ante
| Preposition | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | a. |
| Noun | |
| plural | antes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | antes |
| present participle | anteing |
| past participle | anted |
| past | anted |
| past participle | anteed |
| past | anteed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Antes |
Origin of ante
Learned borrowing from Latin ante (“before”). Doublet of and.
Various origins: * As a Spanish and Catalan surname, perhaps from ante (“elk; suede”). * As a Dutch and North German surname, from Ente (“duck”).
Words formed from ante
Phrases with ante
- ex ante
- ante over
- ante bellum
- ante chamber
- ups the ante
- ante meridiem
- upped the ante
- raised the ante
- raises the ante
- upping the ante
- raising the ante
- terminus ante quem
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with ante
Questions about ante
- What does ante mean?
- Ante means synonym of before, earlier in time, particularly used in historical dating.
- What is ante in Tamil?
- Ante in Tamil is முந்திய, முன்னால், மேலே. See Ante meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is ante?
- Ante can be a preposition, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ante?
- Ante is pronounced /ˈænti/ (UK).
Words near ante in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ante (page history and authors); Ante (page history and authors); ante (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ادائی (Urdu) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ante.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ante.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ante. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.