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.
-
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:
“War,” premiering Thursday on HBO, is the satisfying story of a divorce, or rather the prelude to a divorce.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Painful, for sure, but a prelude to a stirring second half from the striker and his new-old team-mates.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
This shameful incident, from which Sumner never fully recovered, served as a prelude to the Civil War.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Much of the Wall Street community sees the split as likely a prelude to another round of industry consolidation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
The foregoing investigation into the nature of the idea of Texas is put down as a prelude to my journeying across Texas with Charley in Rocinante.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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
This was followed by four elusive Scriabin miniature preludes, Opus 22, and Scriabin’s harmonic flight-of-fancy Opus 28 Fantasie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2025
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
It hosted world gymnastics and track titles, both of which were preludes to the World Cup, which is costing the country an estimated $220 billion.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2022
Too impatient to endure a long range diet, he went on radical diets that seemed like preludes to famine.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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
Their Majesties' present Afric tour was preluded when they left Antwerp some weeks ago on the steamer Thysville, but began in earnest as they landed at Boma, in the mouth of Mother Congo.
From Time Magazine Archive
This act aroused a furious outcry, especially as Frederick William preluded it by a manifesto hypocritically dwelling upon the danger of allowing Jacobinism to take root in Poland.
From William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose
They were preluding a Pan-Pacific Buddhists' Conference to be held in Tokyo in 1934.
From Time Magazine Archive
Another symphony intervenes, preluding the celebration of the feast of the new moon in the palace, to which David has been invited.
From The Standard Oratorios Their Stories, Their Music, And Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton
There is no preluding, there are no intricate harmonies: the key-note is struck in the opening chord, and the theme is kept conspicuously in view throughout all the modulations.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 by Various
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
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