Definition of SEGUE

Segue vs Segway

Noun

Segue is occasionally found spelled segway, even in edited text. There are two likely reasons for this:

The familiar suffix –way (as seen in driveway and runway) seems to agree with the notion of a segue as a "path" along which something transitions;

The existence of the homophone Segway as a trade name for an American company that produces electric transportation devices.

The standard spelling segue comes from the use of the word's Italian root as a direction in music, indicating a transition without interruption.

Examples of segue in a Sentence

Verb

Then he quickly segues into the dangers of being too hard on cops who make an honest mistake. That turns out to be the moral of the story, the perils of politics intruding on the job. — Ted Conover, New York Times Book Review, 18 Apr. 2004 As the Klamath Mountains segue into the Coast Range, moist Pacific air creeps up the river valley in cottony mists. — Bruce Barcott, Mother Jones, May–June 2003 But for casual acquaintances, keep your response brief. Just say "I'm happy for him," and segue into another topic. — Kitty Flynn, Cosmopolitan, December 2000 She quickly segued to the next topic. The band smoothly segued from one song to the next. In the movie, a shot of the outside of the house segued neatly to a shot of the family inside the house.

Noun

The evening news continued, a fast segue into a promo for that night's showcase program, an inquiry into the sources of the civic genius of Bonaparte … — Ward Just, Forgetfulness, (2006) 2007 Making a smooth segue into foreign policy, he offered a nuanced assessment of Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin as "showing signs of pragmatism," but added, correctly, that "anyone who tells you they have Putin figured out is blowing smoke." — James Carney, Time, 21 Feb. 2000

Recent Examples on the Web: Imperative verb

In the background, footage of Farley’s SNL days segues into old childhood photos and videos of Farley, and Sandler effectively cedes the stage. — Karen Han, Vox, "Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh is a surprising, refreshingly earnest standup special," 28 Oct. 2018 With New York’s high-profile stage now firmly established, American Runway segues into the Hollywood opportunities that came calling. — Laurie Brookins, The Hollywood Reporter, "New Book Tells Story of How the Fashion Runway Became a Stage," 6 Feb. 2018 GlamGlow is famous for the fast-acting mud masks, but the widely beloved brand has since segued into other skin-care categories, adding lip balm, cleansers, and setting sprays to its lineup. — Kaleigh Fasanella, Allure, "GlamGlow to Launch TropicalCleanse Daily Exfoliating Cleanser This Fall," 27 Aug. 2018 Inside the Dodgers dugout, as Rich Hill attempted to traverse the final 90 feet of an adventurous trip around the bases in the fourth inning of a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the reaction segued from amusement to horror. — Andy Mccullough, latimes.com, "Dodgers have an eventful 6-4 win over the Pirates," 5 July 2018 Cumming swiftly segued from Karen O-esque snarls to angelic, wordless vocals to ferocious head-banging as Jacob Faber pounded the drums. — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Best and worst of Summerfest Day 3: BlocBoy JB, Billy Currington, MILCK and more," 30 June 2018 Canton, who has held top posts at Warner Bros. and Columbia TriStar before seguing to the Canton Company and, now, Cinelou Films, is known for such efforts as the 300 franchise, Letters to Juliet, Mr. Church, Den of Thieves and the TV series Power. — Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, "Producer Mark Canton to Be Honored by Arthritis Foundation," 17 Apr. 2018 The open plan layout means that the reception segues into the bar (which is a nice way to get straight into the swing of things). — Laura Goulden, Condé Nast Traveler, "34 Best Hotels in London," 26 Feb. 2018 This year’s starts with a cake auction and segues into work in process lecture-demos by Paufve and Nina Haft, plus new dance experiments by Julie Crothers, Courtney Hope, Rose Huey, Molly-Rose Williams and Nina Wu. 7 p.m. Saturday, May 26. — Claudia Bauer, San Francisco Chronicle, "Claudia Bauer’s dance picks for May 20," 17 May 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The three of them segued from tune to tune with hardly a pause, other than to introduce one another midway through. — Bill Beuttler, BostonGlobe.com, "A lot of love in the air as the TEN Trio grooves at Scullers," 1 July 2018 Which is not to say that checking out Queens of the Stone Age and then seguing directly into 2017’s Villains would be a seamless affair -- but the seeds of QOTSA albums future were certainly sown in ’98. — Kevin Rutherford, Billboard, "Eight Less-Heard Debut Efforts From 1998's Rock Rookie Class -- And How They Stack Up Today," 31 May 2018 In the background, footage of Farley’s SNL days segues into old childhood photos and videos of Farley, and Sandler effectively cedes the stage. — Karen Han, Vox, "Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh is a surprising, refreshingly earnest standup special," 28 Oct. 2018 GlamGlow is famous for the fast-acting mud masks, but the widely beloved brand has since segued into other skin-care categories, adding lip balm, cleansers, and setting sprays to its lineup. — Kaleigh Fasanella, Allure, "GlamGlow to Launch TropicalCleanse Daily Exfoliating Cleanser This Fall," 27 Aug. 2018 The open plan layout means that the reception segues into the bar (which is a nice way to get straight into the swing of things). — Laura Goulden, Condé Nast Traveler, "34 Best Hotels in London," 26 Feb. 2018 As Estelle on K Street approached closure in August 2016 (landlord issues), the idea was to segue first to an Estelle in nearby DoCo by October, followed by Estelle-Arden. — Allen Pierleoni, sacbee, "'Estelle 2.0' culminates lifelong dream for Sacramento baker," 30 June 2018 Inside the Dodgers dugout, as Rich Hill attempted to traverse the final 90 feet of an adventurous trip around the bases in the fourth inning of a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the reaction segued from amusement to horror. — Andy Mccullough, latimes.com, "Dodgers have an eventful 6-4 win over the Pirates," 5 July 2018 Cumming swiftly segued from Karen O-esque snarls to angelic, wordless vocals to ferocious head-banging as Jacob Faber pounded the drums. — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Best and worst of Summerfest Day 3: BlocBoy JB, Billy Currington, MILCK and more," 30 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Eventually the ballet dancers, all oddly costumed by Linda Cho in casual clothes with paint-rag smudges, don hard tap shoes and toy with tap moves that begin in silence and segue into more Ellington. — Robert Greskovic, WSJ, "‘ABT Women’s Movement’ Review: Creative Empowerment," 23 Oct. 2018 Back here with Eugene Wei, who just provided a nice segue to this part of the conversation. — Recode Staff, Recode, "Why ‘Star Wars’ is like a social network, and other insights from Eugene Wei on Recode Media," 13 July 2018 Start the Huntington Beach Independence Day with a pancake breakfast, then segue to running events for adults and kids. — April Orcutt, latimes.com, "Celebrate 4th of July with fun, fireworks, parades, pianos and pancakes," 24 June 2018 The best theory is that the instrument allows the performer to flip it over for easy segues from one tuning to another. — David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, "Bowerbird's 2-man music contraption is a hot ticket for 4 remaining Philly shows," 8 May 2018 On occasion the segues into gypsy anecdotes seem forced; the frequent narrative leaps can be disorienting. — The Economist, "A British traveller’s travelogue," 12 July 2018 What better segue, then, into the track that’s definitely produced by the legendary Memphis group's DJ Paul? — Patrick Lyons, Billboard, "Shrinking Drake's 25-Track 'Scorpion' Into a More Digestible 13-Track Album," 2 July 2018 Shorty's unique bounce shares the segue with City Girls and Drizzy. — Michael Saponara, Billboard, "Decoding All of Drake's References on 'In My Feelings'," 13 July 2018 The Ford vs Ferrari movie is rare segue into movies for Balfe, whose last big-screen outing was Jodie Foster and George Clooney’s Money Monster. — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Outlander' Star Caitriona Balfe, 'Quiet Place' Breakout Noah Jupe Join Ford vs. Ferrari Movie (Exclusive)," 23 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'segue.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.