How to Use prefect in a Sentence

prefect

noun
  • The prefect left, and the talk slowed and stumbled into the night as sleep took hold.
    — Ian McEwan, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
  • So a female chef de cabinet (head of staff) is now une cheffe, and a female préfet (prefect) is une préfète.
    — The Economist, 17 May 2018
  • The tone of his letter seems to indicate that age and solitude have mellowed the once high-handed prefect.
    — Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2022
  • Lookman was a prefect at school and still wants to contribute to the school community.
    — Jack Pitt-Brooke, The Athletic, 14 Aug. 2024
  • This list was given to prefects, who then put pressure on booksellers and publishers to purge their stocks.
    — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Slate Magazine, 20 Jan. 2017
  • The prefect of the Var region, Evence Richard, told reporters that two people were killed.
    — Arkansas Online, 19 Aug. 2021
  • Paris’s police prefect has released photos of union members ripping up paving stones to be used as projectiles.
    — Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 18 June 2016
  • The prefect of police for Paris is an old acquaintance of Gamache’s and at first seems an ideal ally.
    — Tom Nolan, WSJ, 28 Aug. 2020
  • Félix Éboué, from Guadeloupe, the first French prefect of color, was the first to rally to de Gaulle.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 4 June 2026
  • Under Benedict, he was named the prefect of the papal household—the gatekeeper to the Pope.
    — Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2023
  • The older two turned out to be rebels—her brother got kicked out of school for throwing rotten tomatoes at the prefect; her sister eloped at age 18.
    — Evgenia Peretz, Vanities, 19 Apr. 2017
  • Mike Gilbert, who has known O’Connor since the pair were 11, tells a story about the day the school prefects were announced.
    — Gaby Wood, Vogue, 17 Aug. 2023
  • And the fact that most people will suspect neither its capabilities nor its expense is the prefect final reason to buy it.
    — Hannah Elliott, Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2017
  • The body of a woman was pulled from the mud, the Naples prefect, Claudio Palomba, told a news conference.
    — Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 27 Nov. 2022
  • Teachers appointed him as a prefect, a position that required him to enforce discipline among his classmates.
    — Tyler Jett, Des Moines Register, 21 Jan. 2026
  • In recent months, the prefect of Oursi and the mayor of Koutougou, both rural communes in Soum province, have been killed.
    — Brahima Ouedraogo, Fox News, 15 Aug. 2018
  • The authorities were still assessing the impact of the storm on Sunday, but the prefect of Mayotte warned that the death toll could climb.
    — Nazaneen Ghaffar, New York Times, 15 Dec. 2024
  • The Naples prefect, Claudio Palomba, said on Sunday that 15 homes had been overwhelmed by the stream of mud.
    — Colleen Barry, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Yves Seguy, the regional prefect, told BFM the aircraft plunged vertically to the ground.
    — Christian Hartmann, USA Today, 28 June 2026
  • The Mayotte prefect’s office said in a bulletin that half the population should have access to running water by Wednesday evening.
    — Reuters, CNN, 18 Dec. 2024
  • During her research, Jatta reached out to the Vatican Library for some loans and soon developed a rapport with its prefect.
    — Anton Corbijn, Vogue, 13 Feb. 2018
  • Regional prefect Alexandre Rochatte said the body was found on a roadside after a home washed away in the capital of Basse-Terre.
    — DÁnica Coto, ajc, 17 Sep. 2022
  • The letter was signed by the Vatican prefect and the secretary before the pope approved the text on Thursday and released the note Monday.
    — Cassidy Morrison, Washington Examiner, 21 Dec. 2020
  • Then the camerlengo and prefect of the papal household pass the news to various officials in the Vatican, who relay it to the people of Rome and the heads of nations.
    — Rachel Treisman, NPR, 21 Apr. 2025
  • The Naples prefect confirmed that the death toll in the tragedy had risen to two, following also the recovery of the body of a 31-year-old woman from the island on Saturday.
    — Colleen Barry, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Sister Brambilla is the first prefect of a department of the Roman Curia, as the central administration of the church is known.
    — Elisabetta Povoledo, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2025
  • The deputy prefect of the community of Kumba, Ali Anougou, blamed separatists who have been fighting the military in parts of western Cameroon.
    — Joel Kouam, Star Tribune, 24 Oct. 2020
  • The crash in the town of Tomblaine killed five instructors, five students, and the pilot, said Yves Seguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department.
    — CBS News, 28 June 2026
  • In the ancient city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga, the local mayor and a member of the United Russia party told district prefects to lead by example.
    — The Economist, 3 Feb. 2018
  • Remi Recio, deputy prefect of Narbonne, said crews were using thermal drones and GPS mapping to monitor for flareups.
    — Arkansas Online, 9 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prefect.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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