"preface" meaning in English

See preface in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈprɛfəs/ Audio: en-us-preface.ogg [US] Forms: preface [singular], prefaces [plural]
Head templates: {{noun}} [POS TABLE]
  1. A preface is the beginning or introductory portion that comes before the main text of a document or book. Synonyms: prelude, prologue
    Sense id: simple-preface-en-noun-qCNfHxZ8

Verb

IPA: /ˈprɛfəs/ Audio: en-us-preface.ogg [US] Forms: preface [canonical], prefaces [third-person, singular], prefaced [past], prefaced [past, participle], prefacing [present, participle]
Head templates: {{verb|prefac|e}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you preface something, you introduce or make a comment before the main point.
    Sense id: simple-preface-en-verb-xeRj5nlS
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preface",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaces",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "pref‧ace",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A preface is the beginning or introductory portion that comes before the main text of a document or book."
      ],
      "id": "simple-preface-en-noun-qCNfHxZ8",
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "prelude"
        },
        {
          "word": "prologue"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈprɛfəs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-preface.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "preface"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preface",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaces",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaced",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefacing",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "prefac",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "pref‧ace",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "If you preface something, you introduce or make a comment before the main point."
      ],
      "id": "simple-preface-en-verb-xeRj5nlS",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈprɛfəs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-preface.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "preface"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preface",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaces",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "pref‧ace",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Countable nouns"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A preface is the beginning or introductory portion that comes before the main text of a document or book."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "prelude"
        },
        {
          "word": "prologue"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈprɛfəs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-preface.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "preface"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preface",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaces",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefaced",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prefacing",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "prefac",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "pref‧ace",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you preface something, you introduce or make a comment before the main point."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈprɛfəs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-preface.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "preface"
}

Download raw JSONL data for preface meaning in English (1.3kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-16 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (b0b7a66 and 3185d56). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.