prefatory

American  

[pref-uh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee] / ˈprɛf əˌtɔr i, -ˌtoʊr i /

Often prefatorial

adjective

1. of, relating to, or of the nature of a preface.

   prefatory explanations.

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prefatory British  

/ ˌprɛfəˈtɔːrɪəl, ˈprɛfətərɪ, -trɪ /

adjective

1. of, involving, or serving as a preface; introductory

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Other Word Forms

• prefatorily
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of prefatory

1665–75; < Latin praefāt ( iō ) preface + -ory ¹

Explanation

The adjective prefatory describes something that serves as a beginning or introduction. The president of the organization made some prefatory remarks before the main speaker at the event. Prefatory is often used to describe an introduction to a speech, book, or other text. If you are asked to speak on a highly controversial subject, you may want to first offer some prefatory remarks that you are only offering your opinion. But at least half the audience will disagree with whatever you say anyway. Your will may have a prefatory clause explaining why you've left everything to your cat Fluffy and not to your awful siblings.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

prefatory

In a prefatory note, he confesses his anxiety about this practice, asking rhetorically, “you can’t just make up quotes, can you?”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

But biologists studying everything from yeast to snakes to humans have recently unearthed a plethora of so-called noncanonical ORFs, which lack those prefatory snippets and are shorter than average.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 24, 2024

I dropped the prefatory clause, since everyone ignores anyway.

From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2023

Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys, for instance, is exuberantly illustrated by Francis Vallejo and carries a prefatory essay by the award-winning Afrofuturist Nalo Hopkinson.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2019

The compass allows you to navigate out of sight of land and, naturally, Edward Wright’s prefatory letter to On the Magnet mentions the circumnavigations of the Earth by English sailors.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton