prefigured

verb

past tense of prefigure
as in foreshadowed
to give a slight indication of beforehand the first crocus traditionally prefigures the arrival of spring

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of prefigured Other Black families tried to hold on under the new regime but ultimately found Wilmington untenable and moved north, joining a local exodus that prefigured the Great Migration. — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 3 July 2026 In July 1962, Froio prefigured her lifelong involvement with the Hamptons by writing a piece for WWD about what was selling at the boutiques in West Hampton, commenting on the merchandise at stores called Le Sorelle (The Sisters) and Treasure Trove. — Lorna Koski, Footwear News, 11 June 2026 Projected on an obelisk, this narrowest of histories prefigured the commemorative distortions to follow. — Greg Allen, ARTnews.com, 7 June 2026 That prefigured, in a much smaller and less consequential way, Iran’s own actions in blocking the Strait of Hormuz during the current crisis. — Ioana Emy Matesan, The Conversation, 9 Apr. 2026 The horror has come now like a storm— what if this night prefigured the night after death— what if all thereafter was an eternal quivering on the edge of an abyss, with everything base and vicious in oneself urging one forward and the baseness and viciousness of the world just ahead. — Literary Hub, 3 Mar. 2026 Chess by telegraph also prefigured chess played through other means of telecommunications. — IEEE Spectrum, 11 Dec. 2025 The dynamic prefigured the White House of Bush 43, which the Veep largely staffed, and substantially dominated. — Karl Vick, Time, 4 Nov. 2025 Your 2018 book, The Lies That Bind, seems to have prefigured the backlash against a certain way of talking about identity—as essential or at least fixed—that was prevalent in the 2010s. — Lula Konner, The New York Review of Books, 4 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prefigured
  1. foreshadowed
  2. heralded
  3. predicted
  4. anticipated
  5. implied
Verb
  • But a narrow overtime loss to the Detroit Lions in the season opener foreshadowed the difficult road ahead.
    — Chantz Martin OutKick, FOXNews.com, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Her life with George Harrison was foreshadowed by a visit to a gallery in Rome.
    — Geoff Edgers, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of foreshadowed
Verb
  • When drugmakers Merck and Moderna announced promising results in August from a late-stage trial of adding an mRNA cancer vaccine to immunotherapy, it was heralded as potentially powerful new way of fighting tumors.
    — STAT Staff, STAT, 15 Oct. 2026
  • But Futura Sciences reports that the plant was heralded as something of a miracle in the 1930s, when soil erosion devastated wild swaths of farmland in the South, following the Dust Bowl.
    — Virginia Chamlee, PEOPLE, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of heralded
Verb
  • Conditions outside of the wind are expected to be sunny, and the day’s high is predicted to reach 68 before dropping to around 48 Monday night.
    — The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Sun, 18 Oct. 2026
  • This year, those existing factors coincide with what is predicted to become the strongest El Niño event in recorded history.
    — Alicia Victoria Lozano, NBC news, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of predicted
Verb
  • Major disruptions in game traffic were not anticipated by authorities because of the wide publicity that the accident had received.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 18 Oct. 2026
  • The Duo could also prove more accessible than some industry watchers had anticipated.
    — MacKenzie Sigalos,Kif Leswing, CNBC, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of anticipated
Verb
  • It was implied that the residency would draw upon multiple bonds that the band has built with the venue, the city, and the surrounding Bay Area fanbase over the years.
    — Benjy Eisen, Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Aly’s quarrel begins with a name; Luna’s arrives at the rank implied by father.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of implied

Browse Nearby Words

prefigure
prefigured
prefigurement
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Cite this Entry

“Prefigured.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prefigured. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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