Word.ws English Dictionary

prelay

prelay verb: to record music and other sound elements at the correct time code locations on a master format without regard to final levels and mixing.

Verb

prelay (third-person singular simple present prelays, present participle prelaying, simple past and past participle prelaid)

  1. To record music and other sound elements at the correct time code locations on a master format without regard to final levels and mixing.
    • He'll be responsible for prelaying sound effects for film and television.1990, The Hollywood Reporter, volume 313, numbers 18-34, page 18
    • In this way, dialog, music and effects elements can be prelaid to hard disk or MO […]1995, The Mix, volume 19, numbers 7-12, page 74

Noun

prelay (plural prelays)

  1. The act of prelaying.
    • If your show includes a lot of effects, for example, explosions, music, sound effects, or loud noises over romantic dialogue, then your sound-effects supervisor will probably recommend a predub or prelay.2002, Barbara Clark, Susan J. Spohr, Guide to Postproduction for TV and Film: Managing the Process

Adjective

prelay (not comparable)

  1. Before a bird lays eggs.
    • An optimum method for feeding calcium is to start feeding the layer level (3.25% or more) slightly before the first egg, because after hens start laying there is a negative calcium balance when consuming the prelay calcium level of 2.0%.2012, Donald D. Bell, William D. Weaver, Commercial Chicken Meat and Egg Production

Forms of prelay

Verb
third-person singular presentprelays
present participleprelaying
past participleprelaid
pastprelaid
Noun
pluralprelays

Origin of prelay

From pre- + lay.

Questions about prelay

What does prelay mean?
Prelay means to record music and other sound elements at the correct time code locations on a master format without regard to final levels and mixing.
What part of speech is prelay?
Prelay can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
What is the past tense of prelay?
The past tense of prelay is prelaid.

Words near prelay in the dictionary

  1. prelaugh
  2. prelaughter
  3. prelaunch
  4. prelaw
  5. prelawsuit
  6. prelay
  7. prelaying
  8. prelays
  9. prelearned
  10. prelearning
  11. prelearnt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prelay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “prelay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prelay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.