Word.ws English Dictionary

precurse

US/pɹɪˈkɜɹs/

precurse verb: to forerun or precede.

Verb

precurse (third-person singular simple present precurses, present participle precursing, simple past and past participle precursed)

  1. (transitive) To forerun or precede.
    • It is true that competition in capitalism precurses new economic order.1987, Shrikant Jichkar, Explorations in Economic Theory of Socialism, page 151
    • As one example, precursing a strain of S. ambofaciens with an aglycone of tylosin while blocking production of spiramycin with cerulenin yielded hybrid macrolides named chimeramycins, which combined structural elements of both tylosin and spiramycin [152].1994, Herbert A. Kirst, “5: Semi-Synthetic Derivatives of 16-Membered Macrolide Antibiotics”, in Gwynn Pennant Ellis, David K. Luscombe, editors, Progress in Medicinal Chemistry, volume 31, page 278

Noun

precurse (plural precurses)

  1. (archaic) A prediction, a prognostication.
    • And even the like precurse of fierce events,
      As harbingers preceding still the fates
      And prologue to the omen coming on,
      Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
      Unto our climatures and countrymen. (Shakespeare)

Forms of precurse

Verb
third-person singular presentprecurses
present participleprecursing
past participleprecursed
pastprecursed
Noun
pluralprecurses

Origin of precurse

English pre- + curse, from Latin praecursum (supine of praecurrō [“run before”]).

Questions about precurse

What does precurse mean?
Precurse means to forerun or precede.
What part of speech is precurse?
Precurse can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce precurse?
Precurse is pronounced /pɹɪˈkɜɹs/ (US).
What is the past tense of precurse?
The past tense of precurse is precursed.

Words near precurse in the dictionary

  1. precurrent
  2. precurrer
  3. precurrers
  4. precurricular
  5. precursal
  6. precurse
  7. precursed
  8. precurses
  9. precursing
  10. precursive
  11. precursor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: precurse (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.

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