prelapsarian

American  

[pree-lap-sair-ee-uhn] / ˌpri læpˈsɛər i ən /

adjective

1. Theology. occurring before the Fall.

   the prelapsarian innocence of Eden.

2. characteristic of or pertaining to any innocent or carefree period.

   a prelapsarian youth.

3. supralapsarian.

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noun

1. supralapsarian.

prelapsarian British  

/ ˌpriːlæpˈsɛərɪən /

adjective

1. characteristic of or relating to the human state or time before the Fall

   prelapsarian innocence

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Etymology

Origin of prelapsarian

First recorded in 1870–75; pre- + -lapsarian, as in infralapsarian, supralapsarian ( def. )

Example Sentences

Whatever purity and prelapsarian pleasures I’d lost this second time around, I managed to regain in other ways.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 28, 2026

Bathers are an artistic signal for life crawling onto shore out of the primordial ooze or basking in a pastoral, prelapsarian paradise.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 16, 2025

It is prelapsarian, imbued with an innocence that we have lost forever.

From New York Times • Oct. 13, 2022

The other idols of those prelapsarian Mets, the rowdies who won it all in ’86, remain staples of New York media, their successes lionized and their sins reconstrued as locker-room foibles.

From Slate • Jan. 12, 2020

Jorjadze’s book was a trove of prelapsarian flavors and practical knowledge.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 22, 2019