prelude

CEFRC1

/ˈpɹɛljuːd/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
An action or event that comes before a more important one.
02
noun
Extra detail
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.

Examples

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Also pronounced

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

A standard module or library of subroutines and functions to be imported, generally by default, into a program.
An introductory or preliminary performance or event.
A forerunner to anything.

In context

Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, called it a “very dangerous escalation and a prelude to potential conflict”.
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.
We are preluding too largely, and must come at once to the point.

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Question 1 · Quick check

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, called it a “very dangerous escalation and a prelude to potential conflict”.
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, →ISSN
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.
2018, Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols, The Rust Programming Language, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 232
The musicians preluded on their instruments.
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
We are preluding too largely, and must come at once to the point.
1829, Francis Jeffrey, “Heman's Poems”, in The Edinburgh Review October 1829
Swimmings of the head and intestinal pains seemed the prelude of dissolution.
1869, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Miscellany of Instructive & Entertaining Tracts, page 2

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