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
Watching Road to Bali – and other titles in the series – you can see how much they prefigure the high-concept buddy comedies of Coming to America or Wedding Crashers several decades later.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 28, 2020
As an example, Alter cited Dr. Steiner’s assertion that “Antigone draws about herself an ethical solitude, a lucid dryness which seems to prefigure the stringencies of Kant.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 5, 2020
"The sunshine is but a symbol of the Divine Love, the pushing buds but prefigure the Resurrection and the Life."
From Dreamers of the Ghetto by Zangwill, Israel
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
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
They did not expect what this vocabulary prefigured for their lives.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2024
"Mr. Kinzie will not be likely to lose any time," she prefigured thoughtfully.
From The Real Man by Lynde, Francis
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
Through his character, though, the show has also explored the impact of battlefield trauma, prefiguring the more explicitly mental health-conscious TV that we see today.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2022
You mention them as prefiguring the activism of the Freedom Summer.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2022
Centrally, though, Chéri evolved a portrait of independent-minded women living in the shadow of slavery, but prefiguring a time when black women might have access to a world that recognized them as equals.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 6, 2020
Thus the father spoke, and knew not that he spoke prefiguring words: for soon after the delicate child, with the morning brightness of his early wisdom, was exhaled, like a dewdrop, into heaven.
From The Campaner Thal and Other Writings by Jean Paul
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.
