prerequisite

Required as a prior condition of something else; necessary or indispensable.

The prerequisite warm-up to the match was ignored.

A good command of Spanish is prerequisite for enrolling in this course.

Something that is required as necessary or indispensable, or as a prior condition of something else.

A degree is a prerequisite for entry into this profession.

Only a full-scale analysis of the origin and development of our sensations and ideas can provide this knowledge; so Hartley's associationist psychology becomes the prerequisite for moral knowledge.

In education, a course or topic that must be completed before another course or topic can be started. May be colloquially referred to as a prereq.

Algebra is typically a prerequisite for physics.