front matter
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of front matter
An Americanism dating back to 1905–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Weeks later, a bemused Hackford called King again to confess they’d been unable to locate Little Tall Island, notwithstanding the hand-drawn map in the book’s front matter.
From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2025
At the risk of reading too much into a book’s front matter, it helps to know that Groff’s sister, to whom she dedicates the book, is superstar triathlete Sarah True.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2023
Introduction: The first section of a report after any front matter, such as an abstract or table of contents.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
Paging through this front matter feels like waiting for a haunted carnival ride to start, only to be wrong-footed.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 31, 2019
Most of this front matter has been moved to the end of the e-text.
From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
