prefect
3
4.7
A senior student who helps keep order and supports staff
- noun
- /ˈpriːfɛkt/
- UK
:
prefecto
- I had to study very hard to become a prefect.
- prefect of the students
Examples
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Prefects will accompany you to and from lessons.
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The prefect helped organize the school event and ensured everything ran smoothly.
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You are a prefect and yet you throw it all away.
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Because this year you are a prefect.
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I happen to be a school prefect.
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Back at the old place, Tom, of course, became a prefect.
Fiction book (1997) -
Ask a prefect if you need anything, and if anyone offers you a cigarette, go straight to the housemaster.
Fiction book (1997) -
You see, the house isn't going to have enough prefects next term.
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Prefects must observe these fundamental rules of deportment.
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We're prefects.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Prefect comes from Latin parts pre- meaning 'before' and facere meaning 'to put or make'. So a school prefect is a student 'put in front' to help teachers, keep order, and lead other students.