prelap

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noun

A film editing technique in which the dialogue from the next scene precedes the cut, and the beginning of the dialogue is heard in the outgoing scene.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

nounprelap (countable and uncountable, plural prelaps)

plural prelaps · alternative pre-lap

  1. countableuncountablebroadcastingA film editing technique in which the dialogue from the next scene precedes the cut, and the beginning of the dialogue is heard in the outgoing scene.
    1 more example

    Some aspects of the editing were groundbreaking: In his book “Film Editing: History, Theory and Practice” (2001), Don Fairservice pointed out that “Stagecoach” contained one of the earliest uses — maybe even the first — of the now-commonplace technique called a prelap, in which as one scene ends, dialogue from the next is already beginning on the soundtrack.

    2022 October 29, Gavin Edwards, “Overlooked No More: Dorothy Spencer, Film Editor Sought Out by Big Directors”, in The New York Times

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Cite this entry
APA

prelap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prelap

MLA

“prelap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prelap. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “prelap,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prelap.

Source: prelap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.