How to Use preface in a Sentence

preface

1 of 2 noun

• The book's preface was written by the author.
• And to preface, these are optional.
  — Bon Appétit, Bon Appetit Magazine, 9 Oct. 2025
• This rosé is all about coastal herbs, grapefruit pith, white peach and sea spray, Landa prefaces.
  — Jillian Dara, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2025
• This all happens in a preface, in prose as practical as a drug pamphlet.
  — Christian Wiman, Harper's magazine, 20 Jan. 2020
• This excerpt includes the book’s preface and the lyrics and commentaries for six songs.
  — John Darnielle, Rolling Stone, 11 Dec. 2025
• As Christopher Tolkien writes in his preface, these two lovers were very close to his father’s heart.
  — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 14 June 2017
• In his preface, Wilder writes that this play comes alive under the conditions of crisis.
  — Liz Appel, Vogue, 28 Apr. 2022
• In the preface, Langlands tells the story of how his strimmer—a motored tool to trim grass—broke.
  — Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, 9 Apr. 2018
• Though fiction, all the stories are based on true events, Chaves Nogales wrote in a preface.
  — Liza Foreman, Variety, 6 Nov. 2022
• Her silver medal in team pursuit at the 2016 Olympics was mere preface.
  — David Woods, Indianapolis Star, 30 Dec. 2019
• What could have been a throwaway nibble instead becomes a thought-through, gripping preface that sets up what’s to come.
  — Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2026
• Gaiman wrote in a preface to the 10th Anniversary Edition of the book.
  — Joanna Robinson, HWD, 30 Apr. 2017
• The real-life models for the fictional versions of both men play themselves in the film’s preface and coda.
  — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 24 June 2021
• In her brief preface, Callahan reminds readers that serial killing is the rarest of all forms of murder.
  — David James, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Oct. 2019
• And so Biden surely knows, better than any of us, that this first phase of his presidency is merely a long preface.
  — Matt Bai, Washington Post, 19 Jan. 2023
• The volume collects work from the last decade, each with a brief preface from the author, giving us a puncture of the present into her words of the past.
  — Literary Hub, 9 Apr. 2026
• Keynes writes the preface for the Nazis and favors eugenics his whole life, and that’s hardly ever mentioned.
  — Daniel Tenreiro, National Review, 2 Dec. 2020
• They were worn just above the ears, like a preface to the earrings (artful hoops that looped-de-looped), and added a subtle touch of practical glamour.
  — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 25 Feb. 2021
• Here, a book becomes the preface to another book, and the introduction doesn’t belong to just one writer.
  — Je Banach, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2022
• The president’s swipe across the aisle is likely a preface for the kind of rhetoric Democrats will espouse on the campaign trail in the coming months.
  — Alisa Wiersema, ABC News, 17 Aug. 2022
• Meyers is a central character in the book who alters the course of Tortorella’s life from the preface to the very last chapter.
  — Sam Gillette, PEOPLE.com, 17 Sep. 2019
• In the preface to the policy, Mattis appeared to confirm that sentiment.
  — Paul Sonne, Washington Post, 5 Feb. 2018
• Seeley is listed as a co-author of the case, which includes a preface in the introduction that serves as a warning label of sorts for the mock trialers.
  — Courant Community, 13 May 2017
• The preface also details the first meeting Biskind had with Bob and Harvey while researching the book.
  — Yohana Desta, HWD, 12 Oct. 2017
• Some of the plays are almost unbearably tedious, such as the vast Back to Methuselah, despite its brilliant prose preface.
  — M. D. Aeschliman, National Review, 5 Dec. 2020
• In a 1994 preface to the book, Collins urged more spending on space exploration and on a manned mission to Mars.
  — Jessica Gresko, Chron, 28 Apr. 2021
• In the preface to an unfinished volume of his pier photographs, Baltrop confessed that at first, he had been terrified of the piers.
  — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 21 Aug. 2019
• In the book's preface, El-Amin calls upon Muslims to set aside small differences and focus on its teachings.
  — Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 24 Mar. 2023
• Prud’homme has ordered an archival binder and plans to create a preface that contextualizes Derome’s life alongside the artwork.
  — Daniella Gray, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Sep. 2025
• And that long preface to editing isn’t helping, Bill Pullman notwithstanding.
  — Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2026

preface

2 of 2 verb

• Do not preface a pitch with this.
  — EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
• No need to preface your questions with a lead-in or even worse, your own opinion.
  — Mary Kate Cary, The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2020
• Having to preface each joke with a warning label does tend to put a crimp in a stand-up routine.
  — Harry Bruinius, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Nov. 2021
• And that knowing musical number prefaces the film’s most clever meta twist.
  — Bryan Bishop, The Verge, 14 Nov. 2018
• Lewinsky did preface some of her questions with her own thoughts and observations.
  — Lynette Rice, EW.com, 9 Nov. 2021
• Kiper prefaced his mock draft by explaining a lot can and will change before April 26.
  — Laken Litman, Indianapolis Star, 18 Jan. 2018
• Rodrigo prefaced the surprise by telling the crowd that the band coming out was her first concert ever.
  — Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 2 Aug. 2025
• Did the nearly three hours of testimony, prefaced by a hug from Sessions’ wife, change any minds?
  — latimes.com, 14 June 2017
• Every episode is prefaced by a post from Drake’s Instagram announcing the time of the stream.
  — Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2025
• Hawke arrived daily with ideas, often prefaced with self-deprecation.
  — Clayton Davis, Variety, 6 Feb. 2026
• The devastating crash prefaced the financial demise of one of the country’s low-cost carriers.
  — Amy B Wang, Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2018
• The song, which is prefaced in the music video with a desperate-sounding monologue in Kesha’s voice, is smooth and soulful.
  — Sara M Moniuszko, USA TODAY, 6 July 2017
• Anna Wintour prefaced in this video—think being the operative word.
  — Emily Farra, Vogue, 4 Oct. 2018
• To preface this, Smith entered the postgame news conference faster than usual, clearly a little fired up, clearly not thrilled.
  — Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 Jan. 2023
• Their words prefaced a video that seemed more on point for last year, when #OscarsSoWhite was the sub-theme of the ceremony.
  — Robin Abcarian, latimes.com, 5 Mar. 2018
• Months of research and community meetings prefaced the report.
  — Laura A. Hobson, Cincinnati.com, 21 Oct. 2019
• As the meeting began, the candidate expressed a need to preface his remarks with a denunciation of his hosts.
  — Barton Swaim, WSJ, 28 June 2021
• Danielson prefaced that comment by saying that programs had called him to gauge his possible interest in coaching elsewhere.
  — Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 21 Apr. 2026
• All the authors preface their stories with brief appreciations of Greene and his publishing house.
  — Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2019
• Todd pointed out that the microphone was picking up audio from the crowd and resumed prefacing his question, but somehow that wasn’t enough to fix the problem.
  — oregonlive, 26 June 2019
• To the contrary, council members often preface their comments with gratuitous praise for staff (as if they’re not being paid handsomely for their work).
  — Paul Krueger, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 June 2026
• The clip opens with Julie Kavner’s character prefacing the story as its narrator.
  — Dessi Gomez, Deadline, 4 Aug. 2025
• Legere did preface his 2017 predictions by saying some are serious, others not so much.
  — Tamara Chuang, The Denver Post, 5 Jan. 2017
• To preface, Malik had just been asked about his relationship with the men of One Direction, and seemed to only have nice things to say.
  — Mehera Bonner, Marie Claire, 13 Sep. 2017
• But the Archbishop of Canterbury will preface it with a passage about religious freedom.
  — Adela Suliman, Washington Post, 3 May 2023
• But though the book is not quite an original work, each essay is prefaced by a short new retrospective, situating the work in Coates’ life and thinking at the time.
  — Jamelle Bouie, Slate Magazine, 2 Oct. 2017
• Many hoped her appearance would preface a new album or tour — a surefire post-Super Bowl play following an event that pays its performers union scale.
  — Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2023
• Brennan prefaces each installment with an instrumental recording, a tongue-in-cheek cover of the country’s top pop song from the week of the incident featured in the episode.
  — James Sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, 3 May 2018
• His project wasn’t simply making space for more designers who looked like him, but of rendering useless a framework that sees the need to preface a designer’s work with their identity.
  — Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 30 Nov. 2021
• TikTok will, however, preface the results of these searches with a resource center that links out to content about substance abuse (which users can simply scroll beyond).
  — Alexandra Sternlicht, Fortune, 3 June 2023