preview

American  

[pree-vyoo] / ˈpriˌvju /

Also prevue

noun

• previews
  plural

1. an earlier or previous view.

2. an advance showing of a motion picture, play, etc., before its public opening.

3. an advance showing of brief scenes in a motion picture, television show, etc., for purposes of advertisement.

4. anything that gives an advance idea or impression of something to come.

---

verb (used with object)

• previews,
  present (3rd person singular)
• previewed,
  past participle,  past
• previewing
  present participle

1. to view or show beforehand or in advance.

preview British  

/ ˈpriːvjuː /

noun

1. an advance or preliminary view or sight

2. an advance showing before public presentation of a film, art exhibition, etc, usually before an invited audience of celebrities and journalists

3. a public performance of a play before the official first night

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verb

1. (tr) to view in advance

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unpreviewed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• previews
  plural

Participles

• previewing
  present
• previewed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• preview
  simple
• previews
  simple
• have previewed
  perfect
• has previewed
  perfect
• am previewing
  progressive
• are previewing
  progressive
• is previewing
  progressive
• have been previewing
  perfect progressive
• has been previewing
  perfect progressive

Past

• previewed
  simple
• had previewed
  perfect
• was previewing
  progressive
• were previewing
  progressive
• had been previewing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will preview
  simple
• will have previewed
  perfect
• will be previewing
  progressive
• will have been previewing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of preview

First recorded in 1600–10; 1920–25 preview for def. 2; pre- + view

Explanation

A preview gives you a look at something that hasn't been released yet. You see lots of previews at the movies. If you've been to a movie lately, chances are you saw plenty of previews — little highlights of upcoming movies that are designed to make you want to see them. Any little snippet designed to get you excited about something to come can be called a preview. If you're writing a novel, you could give someone a preview by reading them a few lines. And you're lucky enough to see a show before it opens to the public, you're previewing it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

preview previews previewed previewing

The Journal has offered a preview, saying the company is “looking at the full scope of work that could be completed with AI models.”

From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026

Tencent released its Hy4 preview on Friday, more than doubling the previous generation’s parameters, although still smaller than those by peers such as Alibaba’s Qwen3.8-Max and Moonshot’s Kimi K3.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

Community members will get a chance to preview the drone Saturday at the Sweet Dreams Car Show in downtown Tracy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

The 26-minute preview of GTA 6 showcased an array of characters and scenes set in Vice City, the Miami-like setting where the game takes place.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

It's still set to WGN, and it's a movie preview, the one where Jack Nicholson is holding the ax and trying to push his face through a door.

From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements

The BBC's North America editor Sarah Smith previews the visit and explains the late senator's remarkable influence on the two conflicts.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

The White House insisted in previews of the summit agenda that U.S. policy toward the island wouldn’t change.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

“The audiences that are now starting to watch the movie in early previews have been euphoric,” Fogelson said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026

The hot topic in cybersecurity has been Anthropic’s Mythos AI model—which is supposedly so capable that the company has deemed it too dangerous to release to the public and is restricted to corporate previews.

From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026

In reality, previews that read like a scrunched-up table of contents are there to help the writer, not the reader.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Much of what is expected at the state trial – the prosecutor's case, Mangione's defence, and obstacles both parties face – were previewed in months of court filings and arguments, but some questions remain unanswered.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

The recovery came even as Alibaba previewed a new large-language model, Qwen3.8 Max, that it said was second only to Anthropic’s Fable 5, with 2.4 trillion parameters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Trump previewed this topic in a Truth Social a few minutes before taking the stage.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

Is this the Hawaiʻi case you previewed last week?

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

Engravings of the Arctic from his upcoming book were previewed in the news media, increasing its soaring advance sales.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

They've been previewing the album all summer, from Japan to Turkey.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

Welker was previewing Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press” on NBC’s Washington station WRC, when she made the remarks about Trump’s endorsements.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026

The maker of ChatGPT said Wednesday that it was previewing new technology to some customers that let it detect patterns and safety risks across multiple interactions with its models.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Finance, technology and government leaders had expressed concerns about its public rollout, following a private release in April for previewing and testing vulnerabilities within its own system.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

All afternoon she had been preoccupied with previewing Darlene’s dress rehearsal.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Related Words

• examination
• viewing