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When reprise was first adopted into English in the 15th century, it referred to a deduction or charge made yearly out of a manor or estate (and was usually used in the plural form reprises). It probably won't surprise you, then, to learn that reprise comes from an Anglo-French word meaning "seizure, repossession, or expense." Eventually, reprise came to refer to any action that was repeated or resumed. A later sense, borrowed from modern French, applies to specific types of repetition in musical compositions. That sense was eventually generalized to describe any subsequent and identical performance. It's possible, for example, to have a reprise of a television program or a book.
Examples of reprise in a Sentence
Denise Petski, Deadline, 16 Mar. 2026
A number of the original castmembers reprise their roles from the sequel, including Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton and Stanley Tucci as Nigel Kipling.
—Ryan Gajewski, HollywoodReporter, 13 Mar. 2026
Angelique Jackson, Variety, 19 Mar. 2026
Rapp’s screen acting career got off to a flying start — her two credits to date are a lead role on the HBO Max series The Sex Lives Of College Girls and reprising her starring role from the Broadway production of Mean Girls in its movie adaptation.
—Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for reprise
Cite this Entry
“Reprise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reprise. Accessed 22 Mar. 2026.
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