The term TIME-SIGNATURE PRECEDER is a four letter word, which is the answer to a crossword puzzle. The answer is CLEF, which is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. It is placed at the beginning of a staff and is used to determine the pitch of all notes on that line or space. The CLEF is also used to indicate the time signature of a piece of music, which is the number of beats in each measure.