prefigure
Americanverb (used with object)
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to show or represent beforehand by a figure or type; foreshadow.
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to picture or represent to oneself beforehand; imagine.
verb
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to represent or suggest in advance
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to imagine or consider beforehand
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of prefigure
1400–50; late Middle English < Late Latin praefigūrāre. See pre-, figure (v.)
Explanation
Something that is a sign of things to come can be said to prefigure the future thing — and usually not in a good way. Sleeping through your alarm Monday morning might prefigure your entire week — in other words, it might be a sign of the unlucky days ahead.English is rich in terms that have the basic meaning of "tell something about the future." Perhaps because we all wish we knew more about it! The Latin root of prefigure is praefigurare, from prae, "before," and figurare , "to form or shape."
Vocabulary lists containing prefigure
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: pre-
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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:
That certainly wasn’t the first time a Leonard Cohen song seemed to prefigure events that had not happened, or to capture a global state of mind before it fully coalesced.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025
People who have received the shots two to four weeks earlier should watch for symptoms that may prefigure the onset of clotting.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2021
But Warner Bros has undergone a series of personnel shake-ups under Stankey that prefigure the HBO Max controversy.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2020
It tempers its poppy lushness with starker, harder music, although the burbling synth that runs throughout seems to prefigure New Order’s later direction.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 17, 2020
Gradually he put aside his perplexities concerning the future, permitting his mind to prefigure nothing but his duties with Landon at Meeker’s Mill.
From The Forester's Daughter A Romance of the Bear-Tooth Range by Hamlin Garland
The rumored price increases from Samsung were prefigured in a note on the stock by Citi analyst Peter Lee last week.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
Cobb’s unexpected new career prefigured those of the charismatic and authoritative doctor-authors and healthcare influencers guiding women through menopause online today.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
Indeed, the epic “Rock Show” prefigured McCartney’s plans for conquering the rock ‘n’ roll box office.
From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2025
It is widely understood to have prefigured the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the rise of modern conservatism.
From Slate ● Jan. 6, 2025
It would be strange indeed if in the multitude of dreams that come to humanity, some few should not be followed by events so similar as to warrant the belief that they were prefigured.
From Etidorhpa or the End of Earth. The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and The Account of a Remarkable Journey by John Uri Lloyd
That’s one way to start a book—bracing and bitter, conveying Mary Cain’s scorn for the athletic-shoe-and-sportswear giant while prefiguring her larger message that “sports normalizes cruelty.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Smith was prefiguring a national movement that would open more roles to artists of color.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 10, 2022
You mention them as prefiguring the activism of the Freedom Summer.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2022
The characters frame their impatience with Edie — her transgressions, her need — as a generational divide, prefiguring, perhaps, how this book might be read.
From New York Times ● Aug. 4, 2020
So speaks Tiresias and is therein a kind of world-judge, prefiguring Minos of the last stage of Hades.
From Homer's Odyssey A Commentary by Denton Jaques Snider
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.
