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:
None prefigure a world I want to live in.
From Salon ● Nov. 24, 2021
But even as the spare language of her lines endows them with a monumental feel, their brevity and levity also prefigure the semiotically fraught short exchanges of the texting era.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2021
Its remaining original construction — in the vernacular idiom, with touches that prefigure the Baroque, and an Orientalist flared red ceramic tile roof — dates to the late 1500s.
From New York Times ● Sep. 24, 2021
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
Yet he sat for an hour or more on the veranda, smoking many pipes and trying as he could to prefigure the future in the light of the night's happenings.
From The Quickening by Ashe, E. M.
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 is true,” writes Preger, “that Dante saw these two women prefigured in a dream as Leah and Rachel, and that Leah said, referring to her sister, ‘Her seeing, and me doing, satisfies.’
From Matelda and the Cloister of Hellfde Extracts from the Book of Matilda of Magdeburg by Magdeburg, Matilda of
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
And Ronald Weinstein, prefiguring the world we live in now, showed that among the many things that can be done remotely, one was to diagnose cancer.
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2022
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
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.
