prelude

See also: prélude and préludé

English

Alternative forms

• prælude (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle French prélude (“singing to test a musical instrument”), from Medieval Latin preludium, from Latin praelūdere.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛljuːd/, /ˈpɹɛljuːd/, /ˈpɹiːluːd/ (less common)
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹeɪl(j)uːd/, /ˈpɹɛl(j)uːd/, /ˈpɹiːl(j)uːd/
• (Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛlɪu̯d/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

prelude (plural preludes)

1. An introductory or preliminary performance or event.

   Synonym: preface

   • 2025 December 11, Joseph Gedeon, quoting Adam Schiff, “US lawmakers condemn seizure of Venezuelan oil tanker: ‘Trump is sleepwalking us into a war’”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, called it a “very dangerous escalation and a prelude to potential conflict”.

2. (music) A short, free-form piece of music, originally one serving as an introduction to a longer and more complex piece; later, starting with the Romantic period, generally a stand-alone piece. [from 1650s]

   Synonyms: intrada, overture

3. (programming) A standard module or library of subroutines and functions to be imported, generally by default, into a program.
   • 2018, Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols, The Rust Programming Language, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 232:

     In the same way that Rust has a general prelude that brings certain types and functions into scope automatically, the std::io module has its own prelude of common types and functions you'll need when working with I/O.

4. (figurative) A forerunner to anything.
   • 1869, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Miscellany of Instructive & Entertaining Tracts, page 2:

     Swimmings of the head and intestinal pains seemed the prelude of dissolution.

   • 1981, Anouar Abdel-Malek, Social Dialectics: Nation and Revolution, page 13:

     On the other hand, the nationalitarian phenomenon is one in which the struggle against the imperialist powers of occupation has as its object, beyond the clearing of the national territory, the independence and sovereignty of the national State, uprooting in depth the positions of the ex-colonial power— the reconquest of the power of decision in all domains of national life, the prelude to that reconquest of identity which is at the heart of the renaissance undertaken on the basis of fundamental national demands, and ceaselessly contested, by every means available, on every level, and notably on the internal level'.

Synonyms

• forestory

Derived terms

• preluder
• preludial
• preludize

Translations

introductory event

• Bulgarian: увод (bg) m (uvod), въведение (bg) n (vǎvedenie)
• Catalan: preludi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 序幕 (zh) (xùmù)

• French: prélude (fr) m
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: προοίμιον n (prooímion)

• Indonesian: pendahuluan (id)
• Italian: preludio (it) m
• Latin: praelūsiō f
• Polish: preludium (pl) n
• Portuguese: prelúdio (pt) m
• Russian: вступле́ние (ru) n (vstuplénije), прелю́дия (ru) f (preljúdija)
• Spanish: preludio (es) m, antesala (es) f
• Turkish: giriş (tr)
• Ukrainian: прелю́дія (uk) f (preljúdija)
• Uyghur: مۇقەددىمە (muqeddime)

short piece of music

• Belarusian: прэлю́дыя f (preljúdyja)
• Bulgarian: прелюдия (bg) f (preljudija)
• Catalan: preludi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 前奏曲 (zh) (qiánzòuqǔ), 前奏 (zh) (qiánzòu), 过门 (zh) (guòmén)

• Czech: předehra f
• Esperanto: preludo
• Finnish: alkusoitto (fi), preludi (fi)
• German: Präludium (de) n, Vorspiel (de) n
• Greek: πρελούδιο (el) n (preloúdio)
• Hungarian: prelúdium (hu), prelűd (hu), előjáték (hu)
• Italian: preludio (it) m, ouverture (it) f
• Japanese: プレリュード (pureryūdo)
• Latin: praelūdium n
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: preludium n

  Nynorsk: preludium n

• Plautdietsch: Väaspell f
• Polish: preludium (pl) n
• Portuguese: prelúdio (pt) m
• Romanian: preludiu (ro) n
• Russian: прелю́дия (ru) f (preljúdija)
• Spanish: preludio (es) m
• Turkish: prelüd
• Ukrainian: прелю́дія (uk) f (preljúdija)
• Vietnamese: khúc dạo dầu, dạo đầu

Verb

prelude (third-person singular simple present preludes, present participle preluding, simple past and past participle preluded)

1. To introduce something, as a prelude.
2. To play an introduction or prelude; to give a prefatory performance.
   • 1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

     The musicians preluded on their instruments.

   • 1829, Francis Jeffrey, “Heman's Poems”, in The Edinburgh Review October 1829:

     We are preluding too largely, and must come at once to the point.

Derived terms

• unpreluded

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch prelude, from French prélude, from Medieval Latin preludium, from Latin praelūdere.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /preˈludə/ [preˈlu.də]
• Rhymes: -udə
• Syllabification: pre‧lu‧de

Noun

prelude (plural prelude-prelude)

1. prelude
   1. an introductory or preliminary performance or event.
   2. (music) a short, free-form piece of music

Further reading

• “prelude”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Verb

prelude

1. third-person singular present indicative of preludere

Anagrams

• puledre