prefigure

That certainly wasn’t the first time a Leonard Cohen song seemed to prefigure events that had not happened, or to capture a global state of mind before it fully coalesced.

From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025

But even as the spare language of her lines endows them with a monumental feel, their brevity and levity also prefigure the semiotically fraught short exchanges of the texting era.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2021

People who have received the shots two to four weeks earlier should watch for symptoms that may prefigure the onset of clotting.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2021

It tempers its poppy lushness with starker, harder music, although the burbling synth that runs throughout seems to prefigure New Order’s later direction.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 17, 2020

Rise; prefigure the grand solution Of earth’s municipal, insular schisms,— Statesmen draping self-love’s conclusion In cheap vernacular patriotisms, Unable to give up Judæa for Jesus.

From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume IV by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The rumored price increases from Samsung were prefigured in a note on the stock by Citi analyst Peter Lee last week.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026

Cobb’s unexpected new career prefigured those of the charismatic and authoritative doctor-authors and healthcare influencers guiding women through menopause online today.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026

It is widely understood to have prefigured the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the rise of modern conservatism.

From Slate ● Jan. 6, 2025

They did not expect what this vocabulary prefigured for their lives.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2024

When the sacrifice unveiled by the truth, which had so long been covered under mystical promises, had at length succeeded, those sacrifices which prefigured this one were removed by the destruction of the Temple itself.

From Church and State as Seen in the Formation of Christendom by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies

That’s one way to start a book—bracing and bitter, conveying Mary Cain’s scorn for the athletic-shoe-and-sportswear giant while prefiguring her larger message that “sports normalizes cruelty.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

You mention them as prefiguring the activism of the Freedom Summer.

From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2022

The Czech Republic’s fourth-wealthiest businessman, Mr. Babis first entered politics in 2011 and, prefiguring Mr. Trump’s cry of “drain the swamp” adopted the slogan of “end the political morass.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 9, 2021

In 2017, Democrats made unexpected gains in the House of Delegates with candidates who were predominantly women and minorities, prefiguring the national trend of more diverse candidate pools.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 22, 2021

Notwithstanding the homeliness of the action, there is here a religious and mysterious significance, prefiguring the Baptism.

From Legends of the Madonna as Represented in the Fine Arts by Mrs. (Anna) Jameson