How to Use prefigure in a Sentence

prefigure

verb
  • His style of painting prefigured the development of modern art.
  • Jesus’ swaddling clothes prefigure his freeing us from death’s winding sheets.
    — Alexandra Mullen, WSJ, 23 Dec. 2020
  • As in life, guns prefigure and alter things, often irreparably.
    — Jeffrey Ann Goudie, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Mar. 2021
  • Tim, more than any of their records, prefigured the 1990s rock boom that made these guys posthumous legends.
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 25 Sep. 2023
  • Such episodes prefigured a broader turn in the case for exacting drug regulation.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
  • Aggressively pretty clothes were worn in a fume flecked background that prefigured the gilet jaunes Parisian chaos of the last few months.
    — Vogue, 28 Dec. 2018
  • Eva’s name, the Latinate of Eve, prefigures her role in the post-apocalyptic world.
    — Maria Garcia, latimes.com, 25 June 2019
  • Cromwell is at the peak of his power, but the opening shot of Anne on her way to her death prefigures his own fall at the hands of the capricious royal.
    — Roslyn Sulcas, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2025
  • The North saga prefigured many things, large and small, about conservative politics in the present moment.
    — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 7 May 2018
  • The company’s latest financial results seem to prefigure this bleak prospect.
    — George Calhoun, Forbes, 1 June 2022
  • The matters to which Hayes referred were, even if not fully predictable, certainly prefigured.
    — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 8 Jan. 2020
  • In so many ways Davis prefigured today's workaholic NFL exec.
    — Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 27 Aug. 2019
  • Limbaugh’s success prefigured more than the rise of conservative radio.
    — Matthew Continetti, National Review, 8 Feb. 2020
  • Brexit prefigured further crises of confidence in Western democracies that have led to the steady advance of the far right.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, New Yorker, 25 June 2026
  • Chess by telegraph also prefigured chess played through other means of telecommunications.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Not long ago, Hong Kong was seen as the city that would prefigure a more liberal, prosperous future for China.
    — Washington Post, 3 July 2020
  • This was true even with the panels that prefigured electronic screens, including shoji, as well as mirrors and newspaper broadsheets.
    — Susan Crawford, WIRED, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Magnetic wheels mean that the surface can be a floor, wall, or ceiling, prefiguring a future where these contraptions might crawl on the walls of theme park attractions.
    — Joseph Flaherty, WIRED, 9 May 2014
  • Grandpop, whose memory is fading with old age, recalls bits of his combat experience, which prefigures what happens to his son and grandson.
    — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 6 Feb. 2018
  • These opening titles really seem to prefigure the Harry Potter movies.
    — Emma Specter, Vogue, 19 Oct. 2021
  • McCarthy was elected speaker on the fifteenth and final vote, prefiguring a tumultuous time in office.
    — Grace Segers, The New Republic, 3 Oct. 2023
  • The widescreen, 35mm format prefigured IMAX and other high-density imagery in a way that still stuns on screen.
    — John Wenzel, The Denver Post, 31 Jan. 2025
  • But even as the spare language of her lines endows them with a monumental feel, their brevity and levity also prefigure the semiotically fraught short exchanges of the texting era.
    — Washington Post, 20 Nov. 2021
  • Over the course of one phantasmagoric evening, Robin witnesses events that prefigure the Revolutionary War.
    — John Swansburg, The Atlantic, 15 June 2026
  • His two-decade rule has transformed the face of his country and cemented a political style that prefigured the rise of numerous nationalist demagogues elsewhere.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 10 May 2023
  • That prefigured, in a much smaller and less consequential way, Iran’s own actions in blocking the Strait of Hormuz during the current crisis.
    — Ioana Emy Matesan, The Conversation, 9 Apr. 2026
  • But this project, written by and about women, prefigures a lot of the calls for representation that have emerged from the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
    — Alex Bhattacharji, WSJ, 21 May 2018
  • That the doll seemed to prefigure Madonna’s nearly identical look on tour shortly after only confirmed Mackie’s uncanny feel for the zeitgeist.
    — Evan Nicole Brown, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 July 2023
  • China didn’t simply swoop in and make the disputing parties suddenly get along; the progress made in Beijing hardly prefigures a major shift in the regional dynamic — at least, not yet.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 12 Mar. 2023
  • These opulent volumes prefigure the label’s high jewelry offering.
    — Sandra Salibian, Footwear News, 10 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prefigure.' 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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