preludium

P3R1E1L1U1D2I1U1M3
UK/pɹɪˈluːdiəm/UK/-ˈljuːdiəm/US/ˈpɹəˈluːdiəm/

noun

prelude, portent

OriginLatin praeludium →
Scrabble 14
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounpreludium (plural preludiums or preludia)

plural preludiums · plural preludia · alternative praeludium · alternative præludium

  1. archaicprelude, portent

    This Menelaus knows, expos'd to ſhare / With me the rough Preludium of the War.

    1717, Catcott, Samuel Croxall, John Dryden, Nicholas Rowe, Temple Stanyan, “Book XIII”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 445
    2 more examples

    […]and ſo the dyſputation beganne, ſette a woꝛke by the Prolocutor with a verye ſhoꝛte pꝛæludium.

    1563, Iohn Foxe, “Book 5”, in Actes and Monuments of theſe latter and perillous dayes […] , London: Iohn Day, page 1006

    Maybe they would learn to raiſe the picke. / I am for 'um. They are very modeſt; tis a fine preludium.[…]

    1624 (first performance), John Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comoedy. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Leonard Lichfield […], published 1640, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 3

Origin

  1. Latinpraeludium
  2. Englishpreludium

From Latin praeludium.

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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