Noun

(en noun)

A fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious.

* 1989 (Sep 30), R. McNeill Alexander, "Biomechanics in the days before Newton", New Scientist volume 123, No. 1684, page 59

He had not seen sarcomeres: these segments were a figment of his imagination.

* 1999 , Martin Gardner, The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener , page 12

Perhaps, dear reader, you are only a figment in the dream of some god, as Sherlock Holmes was a figment in the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

* 2004 , Daniel C. Noel, In a Wayward Mood: Selected Writings 1969-2002 , page 256

Jung's implication here is clearly that one should try to forget that this is only a figment or fantasy, merely make-believe—or perhaps that one should forget the “only,” the “merely”—and indeed take the fantasy seriously as a reality.

Noun

{{examples-right, sense=linguistics: expression referred to by pronoun, examples= * In “The policeman asked the boy what he was doing.”, the phrase “the boy” is the antecedent of the pronoun “he”. * In the sentence “I saw my girlfriend yesterday wearing her old jacket which is odd because she almost never wears it.”, the phrase “my girlfriend” is the antecedent of “her” and “old jacket” is the antecedent of “it”.}} (en noun)

Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.

An ancestor.

(grammar) A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun.

* Fowler

[W]hereas it might seem orderly that, as who'' is appropriated to persons, so ''that'' should have been appropriated to things the antecedent of ''that is often personal.

*

One such condition can be formulated in terms of the
c-command relation defined in (9) above: the relevant condition is given in (16)
below:
(16)    C-COMMAND CONDITION ON ANAPHORS
        An anaphor must have an appropriate c-commanding antecedent

(logic) The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition.

(rfex)

(math) The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a'' in the ratio ''a:b , the other being the consequent.