Coming before (9)
I believe the answer is:
preceding
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">coming before</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">('precede' can be a synonym of 'come before')</span><br/ ><br/ >This is the entire clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for preceding that I've seen before include "Coming/going before" , "Coming before" , "earlier" .)