as in foreshadowed
to give a slight indication of beforehand
the first crocus traditionally prefigures the arrival of spring
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Recent Examples of prefigured
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
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
Verb
-
Just a few months later in the Western Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Dallas Stars foreshadowed what one Olympic team could look like.—
Lia Assimakopoulos
Dallas Stars,
Dallas Morning News,
11 Feb. 2026
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Although violence has often foreshadowed elections in Bangladesh, analysts say this vote is widely seen as especially volatile.—
Mayu Saini,
Sourcing Journal,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
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But maybe Hill, always heralded as one of football’s great innovators, was ahead of his time in another sense, as the first broadcaster-official.—
Michael Cox,
New York Times,
18 Feb. 2026
-
The lead hovered around that level for the remainder of the contest before the final horn heralded the Gophers’ 20th victory of the season.—
Staff Report,
Twin Cities,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
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If extreme weather is predicted, place three or four sturdy stakes around the shrub and wrap around them and across the top with large pieces of burlap.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
18 Feb. 2026
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The ‘inquiry’ that rattled CBS Colbert predicted something like this would happen.—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
18 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Any new boxed set in the series of Beach Boys compendiums that have been released sequentially over the years has been highly anticipated by hardcore fans.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
17 Feb. 2026
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An unusual season of abundant rain after the initial planting has helped the garden mature faster than anticipated.—
Christine Lennon,
Architectural Digest,
17 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Traditionally, programming a robot implied writing thousands of lines of code to define every movement.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
16 Feb. 2026
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Here, the goo is more implied than actually seen, but in a movie full of sexualized fluids, this is definitely the most literal and the most explicit.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
16 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Prefigured.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prefigured. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.
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