Precedent (Noun)
Meaning 1
A subject mentioned earlier (preceding in time).
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- The court's decision in the landmark case set a precedent for future rulings on similar issues.
- The company's success with its innovative product created a precedent for other businesses to follow.
- The country's response to the natural disaster set a precedent for how to handle such crises in the future.
- The athlete's achievement in the record-breaking event established a precedent for others to strive for.
- The politician's decision to resign over the scandal set a precedent for accountability in public office.
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 2
(civil law) a law established by following earlier judicial decisions.
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- The landmark case set a precedent for how judges would interpret that particular section of the constitution in future trials.
- The court's decision followed the precedent set by a similar case heard a decade earlier.
- Establishing a precedent, the court's ruling recognized employees' rights to a healthy work environment.
- The lawyers argued that a guilty verdict in this case would set a bad precedent for the rest of the industry.
- In reaching a verdict, the judge carefully considered the applicable laws and established precedents.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Meaning 3
An example that is used to justify similar occurrences at a later time.
Classification
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents.
Examples
- The landmark court decision set a precedent for future cases involving similar issues of individual rights and freedoms.
- Her innovative approach to project management set a precedent for other team leaders in the company to follow.
- The mayor's decision to implement a recycling program set a precedent for other cities in the region to adopt environmentally friendly practices.
- The success of the crowdfunding campaign set a precedent for artists to raise funds for their projects independently of traditional record labels.
- The precedent established by the historic ruling was used to argue in favor of same-sex marriage rights nationwide.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 4
A system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws; "common law originated in the unwritten laws of England and was later applied in the United States".
Classification
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects.
Examples
- The judge had to study relevant court cases to set a new precedent in the dispute resolution.
- Established in a series of similar lawsuits, this legal precedent governed most environmental torts cases for the past few years.
- Attorneys scrutinized decades-old legal decisions, determined to discover an analogous precedent applicable to the contemporary high-profile trial.
- Throughout English and US legal history, setting an unprecedented legal precedent meant crafting, out of several partial parallels, fresh judgments informed by emerging new context and reason.
- For much of British history the custom or legal precedents regarding marriages' dissolubility essentially laid in jurisdiction claimed solely by a regional council's resolutions on morals grounds