preview
Americannoun
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an earlier or previous view.
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an advance showing of a motion picture, play, etc., before its public opening.
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an advance showing of brief scenes in a motion picture, television show, etc., for purposes of advertisement.
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anything that gives an advance idea or impression of something to come.
verb (used with object)
noun
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an advance or preliminary view or sight
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an advance showing before public presentation of a film, art exhibition, etc, usually before an invited audience of celebrities and journalists
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a public performance of a play before the official first night
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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previewsimple
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previewssimple
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have previewedperfect
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has previewedperfect
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am previewingprogressive
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are previewingprogressive
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is previewingprogressive
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have been previewingperfect progressive
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has been previewingperfect progressive
Past
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previewedsimple
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had previewedperfect
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was previewingprogressive
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were previewingprogressive
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had been previewingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing preview
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: pre-
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Power Prefix: 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:
Many of the papers preview the World Cup semi-finals match between England and Argentina, with millions across the UK expected to tune in for the showdown at 20:00 BST on Wednesday.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
The Times spent two days in Santa Fe to preview the exhibition, set to take over part of the Cinemark complex at Howard Hughes Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Samsung’s earnings preview didn’t clear an evidently high bar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
This sort of ceasefire-in-name-only, however, is a familiar pattern to analysts, who say that this could serve as a preview of the long-term future of the Iran war.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
Everyone hoped that this was a preview to her actually opening her eyes.
From "Silent To The Bone" by E.L. Konigsburg
Both firms charge for usage although Anthropic put $100m towards Mythos previews.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 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 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
CBS News reported that many early ad previews emphasize futuristic imagery and celebrity endorsements, with companies hoping familiar faces can build public confidence in still-evolving technologies.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026
And she was, until halfway into the previews, when she heard a heartbeat behind her and recognized the smell at once.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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
After Rodrigo previewed her music, “The Cure” music video exhibition was opened up to the fans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
Apple previewed an AI-enhanced version of its Siri chatbot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 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
Such is the rarefied air they're breathing at this World Cup, what we said in previewing Haiti can be said again in looking forward to Morocco.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
Claude Fable 5 is a version of Anthropic's Claude Mythos, an AI program which caused a stir among technology, finance, and government leaders when it was released privately in April for previewing and testing.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
The factions within the White House went back and forth for weeks before previewing it for industry executives earlier in the week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
Anthropic is previewing its Mythos model, while OpenAI is nearing completion of its “Spud” AI model.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
All afternoon she had been preoccupied with previewing Darlene’s dress rehearsal.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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.
