Definition of "antecedence" [an•te•ced•ence]

• Precedence. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""[W] hereas there is no other felicity of beasts but the enjoying of their quotidian food, ease, and lusts, as having little or no foresight ... man observes how one event has been produced by another, and remembers in them antecedence and consequence," declared Hobbes."
• "What land have you been living, this level of sentence is typical bordering on severe these days and i have seen much worse lenient sentencing for the most fatuous of reasons for much more serious crimes with greater antecedence."
• "Got this off Bookmooch, after reading purple_pen's review (in which she explores its literary antecedence of Doctor Who), and greatly enjoyed it."