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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
Annika Pham, Variety, 23 Apr. 2026
The series would have seen Silverstone, 49, reprise her role as Cher Horowitz more than 30 years after the beloved film debuted in 1995.
—Liza Esquibias, PEOPLE, 23 Apr. 2026
Max Bultman, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2026
Following her mainstream acting debut in Season 2, Cherry reprises her role as Faye in Season 3 of Euphoria, which airs Sundays at 9pm ET/PT on HBO.
—Glenn Garner, Deadline, 24 Apr. 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 28 Apr. 2026.
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