Voorgaand

Voorgaand is a Dutch adjective meaning “preceding” or “previous.” It refers to something that has been mentioned earlier or that occurs before in time, order, or sequence. The term is most common in written, formal, or legal language, though it can appear in everyday prose as well.

In use, voorgaand normally precedes the noun it modifies: het voorgaande jaar (the preceding year), het voorgaande hoofdstuk (the preceding chapter). In contemporary Dutch, voorgaande is the more common form; voorgaand survives as a historically older or stylistic variant and can be found in older texts or in certain formal registers.

The word is formed from voor- meaning “before” and a form related to gaand, reflecting the sense of “going before.” The concept is closely related to other Dutch terms such as voorafgaand and voorgaande, which carry a similar meaning of preceding or prior, with choice depending on style and grammatical context.

In translation, voorgaand corresponds to the English “preceding” or “previous.” In other Germanic languages, analogous terms include vorangehend in German or précédent in French, reflecting the shared emphasis on something that comes before in sequence or discourse.