predecease

English

Etymology

From pre- +‎ decease.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpɹiːdəˈsiːs/
• Rhymes: -iːs

  • Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

predecease (plural predeceases)

1. The death of one person or thing before another.
   • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Remarkable Incident of Doctor Lanyon”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 59–60:

     ‘Private: for the hands of J. G. Utterson alone and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread,’ so it was emphatically superscribed; and the lawyer to behold the contents.

Translations

anterior death

French: prédécès (fr) m Italian: premorienza f

Verb

predecease (third-person singular simple present predeceases, present participle predeceasing, simple past and past participle predeceased)

1. (transitive) To die sooner than.

   Husbands usually predecease their wives.

   Frederick, Prince of Wales, predeceased his father and never became king.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, signature M2, verso:

     If children prædeceaſe progenitours, / VVe are their ofſpring and they none of ours.

   • 1883, “The Countess of Albany, Charles Edward, and Alfieri”, in The Monograph, a Serial Collection of Indexed Essays, number II, Bangor, Me.: Q. P. Index, →OCLC, note 4, page 43:

     The death of cardinal York extinguished the descendants of James II., and as he had no brother but Charles II., who prædeceased him without legitimate issue, the succession the opened to the descendants of his sister, the princess Henrietta Maria, wife of Phillippe, duke of Orleans.

     Quoting The Quarterly Review, which used predeceased.

   • 2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian‎:

     Two brothers and a sister predeceased him. Bergoglio is survived by a sister, María Elena.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “die sooner than”): outlive, postdecease, survive

Translations

to die sooner than

Bulgarian: умирам преди (umiram predi) French: prédécéder (fr)