Preceding week

USAGE SUMMARY

"Preceding week" is correct and usable in written English. You can use it to refer to the week immediately before the current week. For example, "Sales increased compared to the preceding week." Alternative expressions include "previous week" and "last week."

✓ Grammatically correct

Science

News & Media

Academia

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

60 human-written examples

Stock prices had dropped in the preceding week.

The New York Times

The market's performance closely duplicated that of the preceding week.

The New York Times

The preceding week had created a stirring context for the music of Bach.

The New York Times

It features more than 20 acts, which are announced on the Wednesday of the preceding week.

The New York Times - Arts

Of that number, 565 were referred in the preceding week alone.

The Guardian

GRAIN SHIPMENTS LARGE Coal, Forest Products and Merchandise Increased Over Preceding Week -- Falling Off in Ore.

The New York Times

In the preceding week, Nortek had topped the most active list and rose 10⅛.

The New York Times

Participants are encouraged to go see the films in the preceding week.

Columbia University

Design Parents were asked to complete questionnaires for the preceding week and diaries for the following week for their children.

Journal of the American Dietetic Association

In the preceding week, the group sold off their possessions at low prices.

The Economist

We had sold one job in the preceding week, bringing our monthly sales to $19,366.

The New York Times

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

Place the phrase at the beginning or end of a clause to provide immediate temporal context for the action being described.

Common error

Avoid using "Preceding week" when you actually mean "the last seven days" if you are writing a live update; "Preceding week" usually refers to a specific calendar week that finished before a reference event, whereas "the past week" often includes today.

Linguistic Context

In the examples provided by Ludwig, "Preceding week" functions as a temporal noun phrase where "preceding" acts as a participial adjective modifying the noun "week". It serves to anchor a specific timeframe relative to another event, often appearing in prepositional phrases like "during the "Preceding week"" or "over the "Preceding week"". Ludwig AI indicates this usage is grammatically standard and highly effective for precise reporting.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

Science

58%

News & Media

32%

Academia

10%

Less common in

Formal & Business

5%

Wiki

3%

Social Media

2%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

The phrase "Preceding week" stands out as a robust and highly reliable temporal marker in English. Based on the data from Ludwig, it is overwhelmingly used in formal and technical writing, particularly within the scientific community to define observation windows and within financial journalism to compare market trends. Ludwig AI confirms that the phrase is grammatically correct and suggests that while "last week" or "previous week" are suitable for general use, "Preceding week" is the superior choice when a writer needs to convey a sense of formal precision or when documenting a specific sequence of historical or experimental events.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

previous week

Slightly more common in general professional contexts and nearly identical in meaning.

immediately preceding week

Adds emphasis to the direct succession of the two time periods.

the week prior

Uses a more formal structure often found in legal or academic reporting.

the week before

A simpler, more narrative alternative that works well in storytelling or descriptive journalism.

last week

More informal and commonly used in spoken English to refer to the week immediately prior to the current one.

one week earlier

Emphasizes the specific temporal distance from a fixed point in the past.

past week

Often refers to the seven-day period leading up to the present moment rather than a specific calendar week.

prior seven days

Focuses on the duration of time rather than the unit of a calendar week.

foregoing week

An archaic or highly legalistic term used to refer to a week already mentioned.

earlier week

Less specific, referring to any week that occurred before the current reference point.

FAQs

How do you use "Preceding week" in a sentence?

You can use it to establish a timeline, such as: "Sales figures were significantly higher than in the "Preceding week"." It is especially useful in reporting data or events that happened just before a specific date.

What is the difference between "Preceding week" and "last week"?

While often interchangeable, "Preceding week" is more formal and typically refers to the week before a specific reference point in the past, while "last week" is more common in casual conversation to refer to the week before the current one.

Can I use "previous week" instead of "preceding week"?

Yes, "previous week" is a perfectly valid and very common alternative that carries the same meaning with a slightly less formal tone.

Is "Preceding week" formal English?

Yes, it is considered formal or neutral. It is frequently used in scientific studies (as seen in many PubMed examples) and high-quality journalism like The New York Times to provide precise chronological markers.