prelude
Americannoun
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preludes
plural
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a preliminary to an action, event, condition, or work of broader scope and higher importance.
- Synonyms:
- beginning, opening, introduction
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any action, event, comment, etc. that precedes something else.
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Music.
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a relatively short, independent instrumental composition, free in form and resembling an improvisation.
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a piece that precedes a more important movement.
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the overture to an opera.
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an independent piece, of moderate length, sometimes used as an introduction to a fugue.
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music opening a church service; an introductory voluntary.
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verb (used with object)
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preludes,
present (3rd person singular)
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preluded,
past participle, past
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preluding
present participle
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to serve as a prelude or introduction to.
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to introduce by a prelude.
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to play as a prelude.
verb (used without object)
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preludes,
present (3rd person singular)
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preluded,
past participle, past
-
preluding
present participle
-
to serve as a prelude.
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to give a prelude.
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to play a prelude.
noun
-
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a piece of music that precedes a fugue, or forms the first movement of a suite, or an introduction to an act in an opera, etc
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(esp for piano) a self-contained piece of music
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something serving as an introduction or preceding event, occurrence, etc
verb
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to serve as a prelude to (something)
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(tr) to introduce by a prelude
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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preludernoun
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prelusionnoun
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preludialadjective
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preludiousadjective
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prelusiveadjective
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unpreludedadjective
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preludiouslyadverb
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prelusivelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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preludesimple
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preludessimple
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have preludedperfect
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has preludedperfect
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am preludingprogressive
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are preludingprogressive
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is preludingprogressive
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have been preludingperfect progressive
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has been preludingperfect progressive
Past
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preludedsimple
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had preludedperfect
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was preludingprogressive
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were preludingprogressive
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had been preludingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of prelude
1555–65; (noun) < Medieval Latin praelūdium, equivalent to prae- pre- + -lūdium play; compare Latin lūdus play; (v.) < Latin praelūdere to play beforehand
Explanation
A prelude is an introductory action, event, or performance that comes before a bigger or more momentous one. It is made of up the prefix pre- meaning "before," and the Latin root ludere meaning "play." Speakers of old school French and Latin understood a prelude to be the notes that they would play or sing to warm up or test an instrument. Today preludes are more like introductions than practice, but you can still think of them as small warm ups to the main events. Preludes are often used in classical music, as well as in novels, to set the tone for the rest of the orchestral piece or story.
Vocabulary lists containing prelude
"Two Kinds" (from The Joy Luck Club) by Amy Tan
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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
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"Total Loss Weekend" by Don Delillo
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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:
The company said layoffs were a necessary prelude to modernizing the facility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
A 2023 victory over Troy Williamson should have been Agyarko's springboard to bigger fights but it proved little more than a prelude to a frustrating 12 months with just one low-key outing.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Shares fell around 6% when Apple responded to the cost increases by raising prices on Macs and iPads, a prelude to similar price hikes expected for its primary product, the iPhone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Analysts widely believe Monday’s announcement is a prelude to eventual sales of both Comcast and NBCUniversal, a theory that Comcast rejects.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
The council resolved that the ANC would hold demonstrations on April 6, 1952, as a prelude to the launching of the Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
It has also caused speculation among Russian analysts and the country’s political class over whether it preludes another draft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
He started playing piano at the age of two and, at just 17, gave a remarkable two-and-a-half-hour concert featuring the 24 preludes and fugues by composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2024
The novenario meals were preludes to the funeral reception, held at Torres Banquet Hall near St. Alphonsus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
He plays a pair of pieces from Muzio Clementi’s “Gradus” collection, and flanks the Debussy with little-played, moodily lyrical Beethoven preludes.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2023
The twelve-note octave as we know it became a firm fixture of Western music after the publication in 1722 of J. S. Bach’s forty-eight preludes and fugues for the 'Well-Tempered Keyboard’.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The Taliban did not issue a formal statement on the anniversary of the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks that preluded them being driven from power 20 years earlier.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 11, 2021
Similar marches have since preluded Pride events across the country.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2019
Seventy years later, it was lost to the modern urges that preluded the Seattle Century 21 World’s Fair.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2018
Last week came a Luther Day which was notable because it preluded bigger celebrations, to be held Nov. 10 on the 450th anniversary of Martin Luther's birth.
From Time Magazine Archive
The friendship thus preluded was to last until death closed it.
From Tennyson and His Friends by Various
They were preluding a Pan-Pacific Buddhists' Conference to be held in Tokyo in 1934.
From Time Magazine Archive
Beethoven said to me, "I thought Himmel had just been preluding."
From Life of Beethoven by Anton Schindler
It shall be christened henceforward collective or simultaneous love, though I might also, if I and Kolbe chose, let it be named preluding love,–confederate-tenderness,–general warmth,–the fidelity of adopted childhood.
From Hesperus or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days Vol. I. A Biography by Jean Paul
It is terrible, it is magnificent; one seems to hear the chorus of the abysses of the old world preluding a new chaos.
From Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century by W. H. Davenport Adams
He was heating them, preluding a score, passing from it to another.
From The Paliser case by Edgar Saltus
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.
