WordNet
pre-existent
adj. existing previously or before something; "variations on pre-existent musical themes" [syn: preexistent, preexisting, pre-existing]
Usage examples of "pre-existent".
Only, I no longer put it to the test of a pre-existent, abstract and false idea of dramatic genius, and I understood now that dramatic genius was precisely this.
The discovery of the City threatened to upset the pre-existent balance even further.