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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

prelude.

An introductory or preliminary performance or event.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɹɛljuːd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹiːluːd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹeɪl(j)uːd/Canada, US/ˈpɹɛl(j)uːd/Canada, US
  1. An introductory or preliminary performance or event.

  2. A short, free-form piece of music, originally one serving as an introduction to a longer and more complex piece; later, starting with the Romantic period, generally a stand-alone piece.

  3. A standard module or library of subroutines and functions to be imported, generally by default, into a program.

  4. A forerunner to anything.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

From Middle French prélude (“singing to test a musical instrument”), from Medieval Latin preludium, from Latin praelūdere.

verb/ˈpɹɛljuːd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹiːluːd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹeɪl(j)uːd/Canada, US/ˈpɹɛl(j)uːd/Canada, US
  1. To introduce something, as a prelude.

  2. To play an introduction or prelude; to give a prefatory performance.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French prélude (“singing to test a musical instrument”), from Medieval Latin preludium, from Latin praelūdere.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.