segue
Americanverb (used without object)
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to continue at once with the next musical section or composition (often used as a musical direction).
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to perform in the manner of the preceding section (used as a musical direction).
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to make a transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption.
The conversation segued from travel anecdotes to food.
noun
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an uninterrupted transition made between one musical section or composition and another.
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any smooth, uninterrupted transition from one thing to another.
verb
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(often foll by into) to proceed from one section or piece of music to another without a break
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(imperative) play on without pause: a musical direction
noun
Etymology
Origin of segue
First recorded in 1850–55; from Italian: “(it) follows, (there) follows,” 3rd-person singular present of seguire “to follow,” ultimately from Latin sequī; see sue
Explanation
A segue is a smooth transition. When you segue in conversation, you change the topic so smoothly that people might not even notice. A good speaker knows how to segue: they can get from one topic to another so easily that you hardly notice the topic changed. Comedians have the same skill as they segue from one joke to another, and politicians also learn the art of the segue. So do teachers. This is also a term in music for moving from one part of a piece to another. Remember that segue does not sound quite how it looks: it's pronounced "SEG-way."
Vocabulary lists containing segue
The Hunger Games
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Latin Love, Vol III: seguire
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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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” segues into “Born In The USA,” a segue so simple but so brilliant it’s surprising it hasn’t happened before.
From Salon ● May 28, 2026
Rosalía used this as a perfect segue into her song La Perla, supposedly about her former fiancé Rauw Alejandro - with lyrics about a "terrorista emocional" whose proudest achievement is his collection of bras.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
All a deft segue to WrestleMania 42, which many followers suspect is positioning Brady to be some sort of scripted villain during the WWE’s annual five-day extravaganza.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
They segue to a holiday market full of happy European Union habitants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
As the last scene faded and the segue music played, my heart started to thunder.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
“The idea that you could strike it rich in California with good luck and industry then segued into the fact that people like John Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan could strike it rich,” Brands says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
But all that momentum for change stalled when, in 1917, the United States entered World War I and then segued to a postwar decade of speculative frenzy.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2025
The show began with a new-agey wash of ocean sounds, that segued seamlessly into her 2024 single, Training Season.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2025
As the chuckles subsided, Biden segued back to his prepared remarks by saying, “All kidding aside.”
From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2024
After a time the rolling meadows segued into a golf course.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
The exhibition slips past the complications of World War II with just a few ephemeral examples before segueing into an accumulation of familiar pop-culture products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
Maslany, who portrayed the doomed mother in “The Monkey,” brings an edge to Liz from the start, the character’s romantic anxieties segueing into a fear that something in the house is out to kill her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025
However, the tonal mismatch of segueing from a story about a family member’s coma to a soda tasting is notable and leads one to ask: Why is JD Vance being so weird about Mountain Dew?
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2024
She emerges to ear-splitting screams, in a floral-print dress and towering heels, smouldering through the achingly cool A&W, before segueing into the ethereal Young and Beautiful.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2023
Snow was falling in earnest now—big silent petals drifting through the springtime woods, white bouquets segueing into snowy dark: a nightmarish topsy-turvy land, something from a story book.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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.
