prelude to
16
4.4
- noun
:
preludio de
- The harsh winter was just a prelude to the beautiful spring flowers that would soon emerge.
- a necessary prelude to
- serves as a prelude to
- prelude to war
Occupying Belgium and Ukraine was only a necessary prelude to fight the next war.
- Occupying Belgium and Ukraine was only a necessary prelude to fight the next war.
- I just wanted to make sure that what's going on is not actually the the prelude to something bigger.
- And so intuition is the prelude to creativity and creativity is the prelude to higher consciousness and vision.
- It can be the prelude to depression, feelings of worthlessness and general apathy and why even get out of bed sort of sensation.
- So the way Danny Sheehan explained to this to me, well, I guess he explained the prelude to this.
Examples
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My other books, they were just a prelude to this one.
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This could be a prelude to a larger attack.
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I just want to show you one more picture as a prelude to where I will start next time.
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Tonight, you will play for me a prelude to our final act.
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You see, this is just the beginning, a prelude to the trial.
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Right now, you are taking center stage in the prelude to our little show.
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And what looks like an exercise could be a prelude to war.
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I just wanted to make sure that what's going on is not actually the the prelude to something bigger.
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In other cases, large state enterprises are being broken up as a prelude to privatization.
Academic text (1991) -
The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved, is only the prelude to a larger settlement, in which all Europe may find peace.
Synonyms
27
7.2
A person, thing, or event that comes before and signals what will follow
25
5.9
An event that comes before and leads to a more important event
21
6.0
An opening part of a play that explains the story or background
10
5.2
An event that happens before a main event to prepare for it
9
4.9
A short introduction before the main part of a talk or story
7
7.2
An event or action that comes before something more important
5
7.3
An event or situation that happened before something and helped cause it
1
5.6
A short event or performance that comes before the main show
A change that happens before another action to cause or prepare it
A sign or early example that shows what will happen later
An event or example that shows what will happen later
Antonyms
How Significant
Surface Forms
Morphology
prelude + to
The noun 'prelude' already encodes the idea of an event that leads into a larger one and the particle 'to' simply links it to what follows, so the phrase's meaning is directly derivable from its parts. This noun + prepositional link is a common, compositional pattern (e.g. French 'prélude à', Spanish 'preludio de'), making the expression transparent to learners who know the constituents.
Etymology
Prelude to comes from music: a short piece called a prelude was played before the main event or song. So when we say something is a prelude to another thing, we mean it is a small 'introduction' that comes before something more important.