prelude
UK/ˈpɹɛljuːd//ˈpɹeɪl(j)uːd/
prelude noun: an introductory or preliminary performance or event.
Noun
prelude (plural preludes)
- An introductory or preliminary performance or event.
- Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, called it a “very dangerous escalation and a prelude to potential conflict”.2025 December 11, Joseph Gedeon, quoting Adam Schiff, “US lawmakers condemn seizure of Venezuelan oil tanker: ‘Trump is sleepwalking us into a war’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- preface
- 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.
- A standard module or library of subroutines and functions to be imported, generally by default, into a program.
- In the same way that Rust has a general prelude that brings certain types and functions into scope automatically, the std::io module has its own prelude of common types and functions you'll need when working with I/O.2018, Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols, The Rust Programming Language, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 232
- A forerunner to anything.
- Swimmings of the head and intestinal pains seemed the prelude of dissolution.1869, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Miscellany of Instructive & Entertaining Tracts, page 2
- On the other hand, the nationalitarian phenomenon is one in which the struggle against the imperialist powers of occupation has as its object, beyond the clearing of the national territory, the independence and sovereignty of the national State, uprooting in depth the positions of the ex-colonial...1981, Anouar Abdel-Malek, Social Dialectics: Nation and Revolution, page 13
Verb
prelude (third-person singular simple present preludes, present participle preluding, simple past and past participle preluded)
- To introduce something, as a prelude.
- To play an introduction or prelude; to give a prefatory performance.
- The musicians preluded on their instruments.1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson...
- We are preluding too largely, and must come at once to the point.1829, Francis Jeffrey, “Heman's Poems”, in The Edinburgh Review October 1829
prelude meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Indonesian
prelude in Urdu
- prelude
- پرستاو prastāv
prelude in Malayalam
- opening, prelimnary, overture
- ആമുഖം, മുഖവുര, പ്രാരംഭനടപടി, സമാരംഭം, പ്രാരംഭകർമ്മം, തുടക്കം
- introductory movement, overture, introduction
- ഒരുമ്പാട്, ലഘുമേളം, നാന്ദി, പൂർവ്വരംഗം, അവതരണം, പ്രാരംഭനീക്കം
- introduction, preface, prologue
- ആമുഖം, പീഠിക, പുരോവചനം, പ്രമുഖം, പസ്പശം, പ്രസ്താവന
prelude in Kannada
- ನಾಂದಿ, ಉಪಕ್ರಮ, ಮುನ್ನುಡಿ, ಪೂರ್ವರಂಗ, ಉಪೋದ್ಘಾತ, ಪೀಠಿಕೆ
prelude in Indonesian
- introductory event
- pendahuluan
More languagesFewer languages
- prelude in Vietnamese
- khúc dạo dầu, dạo đầu
Examples of prelude in a sentence
- Vorwaerts insisted that the BVG strike was but a prelude to a putsch.
- Meeting his doom so, the great hazarder fulfils a destiny for which his whole life was prelude.
- To what monstrous inharmony of death was it the visible prelude?
Synonyms of prelude
Forms of prelude
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | preludes |
| alternative form | prælude |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | preludes |
| present participle | preluding |
| past participle | preluded |
| past | preluded |
Origin of prelude
From Middle French prélude (“singing to test a musical instrument”), from Medieval Latin preludium, from Latin praelūdere.
Words formed from prelude
Questions about prelude
- What does prelude mean?
- Prelude means an introductory or preliminary performance or event.
- What is prelude in Urdu?
- Prelude in Urdu is پرستاو (prastāv). See Prelude meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is prelude?
- Prelude can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce prelude?
- Prelude is pronounced /ˈpɹɛljuːd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of prelude?
- The plural of prelude is preludes.
Words near prelude in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prelude (page history and authors); پرستاو (Urdu) (page history and authors); prelude (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); prelude (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-prelude.ogg.
Cite this entry: “prelude.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prelude. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.