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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
Paul Grein, Billboard, 13 Nov. 2025
Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher and Morgan Freeman reprise their roles, while Ariana Greenblatt and Rosamund Pike are among the franchise newcomers.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 12 Nov. 2025
Armando Tinoco, Deadline, 18 Nov. 2025
Ben Whishaw and Sarah Lancashire will also reprise their lead roles in season two; Andrew Buchan, Kathryn Hunter, Ella Lily Hyland, Gabrielle Creevy, Agnes O’Casey and Molly Chesworth are also returning.
—Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 18 Nov. 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 20 Nov. 2025.
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