prerequisite
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Something that is required in advance.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prihrehkwuhzuhtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹɪˈɹɛkwəzət
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Something that is required in advance
“Latin was a prerequisite for admission.”
Something that is required as necessary or indispensable, or as a prior condition of something else.
In education, a course or topic that must be completed before another course or topic can be started. May be colloquially referred to as a prereq.
adjective
Required as a prior condition of something else; necessary or indispensable.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Something that is required in advance
Used this way, prerequisite is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Latin was a prerequisite for admission.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “prerequisite for …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: prerequisite for …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prerequisite
- “Latin was a prerequisite for admission.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: required as a prior condition of something else
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.