Meaning: The ratio of the output to the input of any system. Classified under: Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas. Hypernyms (efficiency is a kind of...): ratio (the relative magnitudes of two quantities (usually expressed as a quotient))
uk â /ËÃ¦n.tiËsiË.dÉnt/ us â /ËÃ¦n.tÌ¬ÉËsiË.dÉnt/. âº formal someone or something existing or happening before, especially as the cause or origin of something existing or happening later: Charles Babbage's mechanical calculating engines were the antecedents of the modern computer. Many people feel a great curiosity to find out about their antecedents. âº specialized language a word or phrase that a pronoun refers back to: In the sentence He picked a book off the shelf and handed it to Sally, book is the antecedent of it.
1. an event preceding or occasioning another event-setting the stage for a particular response. 2. In linguistics, the noun or pronoun to whom the phrase refers (for example, train in the sentence: the train was late tonight). 3. In a proposition, this refers to the if part that is then followed by the then part. For example, in the sentence: If John is a man, then he will eventually die, if John is a man is the antecedent. Also known as protasis. See also affirming the antecedent-denying the antecedent. ANTECEDENT: The antecedent for his or her crying behavior is the other child snatching his or her toy.