How to Use prelude in a Sentence

prelude

1 of 2 noun
  • That was the prelude to the midterms.
    — ABC News, 31 May 2026
  • That was the prelude to the midterms.
    — CBS News, 27 May 2026
  • Some staff fear this could be a prelude to job cuts.
    — ArsTechnica, 13 Apr. 2026
  • The massacre was a prelude to war.
    — Scott Pelley, CBS News, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Look what happened last night, that was a prelude to the midterms.
    — Rachel Scott, ABC News, 27 May 2026
  • The dancers swing their arms, clapping in time to a string-heavy prelude.
    — Mitchell S. Jackson, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2022
  • The blockades of the past are merely a prelude to those to come.
    — Robert Moor, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026
  • This sedition was a prelude to even bigger schemes.
    — Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 18 Jan. 2026
  • This sedition was a prelude to even bigger schemes.
    — Richard Hall, Time, 17 Jan. 2026
  • This could prove to be not the twilight of the tyrants but a prelude to a darker era.
    — Gerard Baker, WSJ, 19 Dec. 2022
  • Hooting this time of the year can also be a prelude to breeding.
    — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Oct. 2022
  • The current ceasefire is likely a prelude to the next round of war.
    — Ariel Cohen, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • After all, for many sellers, a sale is a prelude to a purchase.
    — John Walkup, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2022
  • The prelude was an off-camber cascade with a steep hairpin turn to the right.
    — Peter Rubin, Longreads, 10 Nov. 2022
  • But recent news still smacks of a prelude to Bacigalupi’s tale.
    — The Arizona Republic, 27 July 2023
  • If past is a prelude, Sinner will take that break and ride it all the way to the title.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2026
  • That intervention turned out to be just a prelude.
    — Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
  • Or merely the prelude to yet more drama in the final few weeks of the season?
    — Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Is that prelude to a repeat at the Super Bowl, as well?
    — Yifan Wu, New York Times, 6 Feb. 2026
  • All of this is prelude to the coming reckoning at next month’s synod.
    — Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2023
  • Consider this gallery as a prelude to a new phase in Lemons’ life and career.
    — Essence, 19 Sep. 2023
  • But that was just the prelude to the RSF’s assault on the town.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2026
  • For Sienna, the season was a prelude to greater things to come.
    — Kyle Newman, Denver Post, 9 Apr. 2026
  • The latter stages of the film are chewed up, interminably, by the prelude to this major event.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2022
  • The prelude to Sunday might have come in the last hour — two groups finishing two holes.
    — Dallas Morning News, 14 Feb. 2026
  • The trick lies in successfully hiding the messy prelude from the guests.
    — Stacey Lastoe, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 June 2023
  • Getting dressed is, in a sense, always a prelude to a performance.
    — Katy Kelleher, ELLE, 31 May 2023
  • Kevin Merida, who is Black, resigned this month as a prelude of what was to come.
    — Curtis Bunn, NBC News, 24 Jan. 2024
  • The finish was even better, a prelude to what Woods delivered at the end of the day.
    — Dallas News, 16 Feb. 2023

prelude

2 of 2 verb
  • Weather The first half took more than 4 hours and was preluded by a lightning delay.
    — Jake Shapiro, The Denver Post, 5 July 2019
  • In a text message, Stivers confirmed that his new job will prelude him from running for Senate.
    — Andrew J. Tobias, cleveland, 19 Apr. 2021
  • Igbani and prisoner advocates have urged the prison agency to hold an education campaign to prelude the vaccination.
    — Jolie McCullough Jolie McCullough, ExpressNews.com, 25 Dec. 2020
  • In a move that was expected and could prelude further transactions, the Bulls on Thursday announced the team waived guard Sean Kilpatrick.
    — Malika Andrews, chicagotribune.com, 12 July 2018
  • This poem seems positioned as a prolusion — his word — or prelude to set a mood of contemplation, to encourage a softness or stillness, a long view, for entering what follows.
    — Nancy Lord, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Apr. 2022
  • In his Auburn classroom, Busbin preludes his Civil War unit by spending several days with his students learning about enslavement.
    — al, 1 Mar. 2020
  • Such steps are typically preludes to a board fight, which Elliott has until March to launch for Hess’s 2018 annual meeting.
    — David Benoit and Bradley Olson, WSJ, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Wildfires raged on two ends of California Saturday, killing one person, destroying scores of homes and reminding residents of last year’s historic destruction, if not preluding a repeat.
    — Avi Selk, Washington Post, 7 July 2018
  • The 6-3 vote for the contract exposed the ongoing riff between the board that was temporarily patched on March 5 when the board voted unanimously to hire Brumley, despite the contentious debate that preluded the approval.
    — Littice Bacon-Blood, NOLA.com, 13 Mar. 2018

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