prefiguration
Americannoun
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the act of prefiguring
-
something that prefigures, such as a prototype
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.
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
“I wouldn’t say it’s a prefiguration of Romanticism; it is already Romantic. Rather, he goes straight to contemporary music, straight to Alban Berg.”
From New York Times • Jul. 22, 2021
It is an advance movement in the East, bringing substance and actuality to much that in Buddhism is but vaporous ideality and bewildering prefiguration.
From Buchanan's Journal of Man, December 1887 Volume 1, Number 11 by Buchanan, Joseph R. (Joseph Rodes)
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.
