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In ancient Greek drama, the prologos (a word that means basically "speaking before") was the opening portion of the play, before the entry of the all-important chorus. It might be spoken by a single actor, maybe playing a god, who would "set the scene" for the audience. Playwrights today instead often provide the same kind of "scene-setting" information through dialogue near the play's beginning; in movies, it may appear (as in the "Star Wars" series) in the form of actual written text. In a nonfiction book, the lead-in is now usually called a preface or introduction; novels rarely provide any introduction at all. Still, prologue remains a useful word for nonliterary purposes. The saying "The past is prologue" tells us that, in real life, almost everything can be a prologue to what follows it.
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Examples of prologue in a Sentence
Ben Geman, Axios, 1 Nov. 2024
As they’re introduced in the prologue, the three groups of main characters (white, Black, largely Jewish immigrants) circle one another and then blend into mixed groups, contrapuntally.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2024
The muses promised fame and fortune to artists who followed them, but are rarely mentioned by name in the prologues and prefaces of artworks today.
—Alison Habens, JSTOR Daily, 31 Oct. 2024
If the past is prologue, the market has further upside, even with stocks trading near all-time highs and after an unusually strong first three quarters of the year.
—Alex Harring, CNBC, 18 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Prologue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prologue. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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prologue
noun
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