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

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛl(j)uːd/, /ˈpɹeɪl(j)uːd/, /ˈpɹiːluːd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

prelude (plural preludes)

1. An introductory or preliminary performance or event.

   Synonym: preface

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. (computing) A standard module or library of subroutines and functions to be imported, generally by default, into a program.
4. (figurative) A forerunner to anything.

Synonyms

• forestory

Translations

introductory event

• Catalan: preludi m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 序幕 (zh) (xùmù)

• French: prélude (fr) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: προοίμιον n (prooímion)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: preludio (it) m
• Latin: praelūsiō f
• Portuguese: prelúdio (pt) m
• Russian: вступле́ние (ru) n (vstuplénije), прелю́дия (ru) f (preljúdija)
• Spanish: preludio (es) m, antesala (es) f
• Turkish: giriş (tr)

short piece of music

• Catalan: preludi m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 前奏曲 (zh) (qiánzòuqǔ)

• Czech: předehra f
• Esperanto: preludo
• Finnish: alkusoitto (fi), preludi (fi)
• German: Präludium (de) n, Vorspiel (de) n
• Greek: πρελούδιο (el) n (preloúdio)
• Hungarian: prelúdium
• Italian: preludio (it) m, ouverture (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: プレリュード (pureryūdo)
• Latin: praelūdium n
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: preludium n

  Nynorsk: preludium n

• Portuguese: prelúdio (pt) m
• Romanian: preludiu (ro) n
• Russian: прелю́дия (ru) f (preljúdija)
• Spanish: preludio (es) m
• Vietnamese: khúc dạo dầu, dạo đầu

Verb

1. To introduce something, as a prelude.
2. To play an introduction or prelude; to give a prefatory performance.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     The musicians preluded on their instruments.

   • Jeffrey

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

---

Italian

Verb

prelude

1. third-person singular present indicative of preludere

Anagrams

• puledre