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Showing results for prefiguration. Search instead for defiguration.
Synonyms

prefiguration

American  
[pree-fig-yuh-ray-shuhn, pree-fig-] / priˌfɪg jəˈreɪ ʃən, ˌpri fɪg- /

noun

  1. the act of prefiguring.

  2. that in which something is prefigured.


prefiguration British  
/ ˌpriːfɪɡəˈreɪʃən /

noun

  1. the act of prefiguring

  2. something that prefigures, such as a prototype

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of prefiguration

1350–1400; Middle English prefiguracioun < Late Latin praefigūrātiōn- (stem of praefigūrātiō ), equivalent to praefigūrāt ( us ) (past participle of praefigūrāre to prefigure ) + -iōn- -ion


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.

See Examples For:

And the “Laudamus Te,” with its insistent back-and-forth reiteration of the simplest consonant harmonies, sounds like a prefiguration of Virgil Thomson’s “Four Saints in Three Acts.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

It’s a prefiguration — of how to think, how to collaborate, and how to stay sane when the private is gone.

From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2024

Since the early 20th century, Cycladic figures have had iconic power for contemporary artists, as an ancient prefiguration of abstraction.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 11, 2022

You might call it a prefiguration of the Bannon movie.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 28, 2019

This of old was accounted a prefiguration and mystical pointing out of the Pythian divineress, who used always, before the uttering of a response from the oracle, to shake a branch of her domestic laurel.

From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 by Peter Anthony Motteux

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