Did you know?
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
Angelique Jackson, Variety, 25 Jan. 2025
The icy winds tend to keep residents firmly planted inside, while the early sunsets plunge the region into darkness before 5:00 PM for the bulk of the season—but fortunately, one Boston hotel in particular offers the perfect reprise from the bitter cold.
—Jared Ranahan, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2025
Lexi Carson, HollywoodReporter, 29 June 2025
For all of the sequel’s changes in tone and story, Johnstone was sure to reprise some of the elements that fans loved in the first movie — like the dance M3gan did that went viral — albeit with some new twists.
—Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 27 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for reprise
Cite this Entry
“Reprise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reprise. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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