Premiere

How to spell premiere

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce premiere

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does premiere mean?

1. nounThe first public performance or showing of a film, play, or other work.
2. verbTo give or have a first public performance or showing.

Premiere in a sentence

• noun

  The film premiere drew a crowd of photographers to the cinema.

• verb

  The director hopes to premiere the documentary at a major festival.

• noun

  Tickets to the opera premiere sold out within an hour.

• verb

  The orchestra will premiere a new symphony next season.

Where does premiere come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes straight from the French premiere, which is the feminine form of premier, meaning simply 'first'. The French adjective descends from the Latin primarius, 'of the first rank' or 'principal', which in turn was built on primus, the ordinary Latin word for 'first'. In the world of French theatre, the premiere was understood as the premiere representation, that is, the first showing of a play, and English borrowed the word in the nineteenth century specifically for that opening-night sense. The same primus root sits inside a whole family of everyday English words such as 'primary', 'prime', and 'primitive'. The spelling trap is the trailing 'e': English keeps the French feminine ending, so the performance sense is premiere with a final 'e', while premier without it is the adjective or the title of a head of government.

How the word is built

• premi- (from French premier/Latin primus: first)
• -ere (from French feminine ending -ère)

Words that sound like premiere

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• premier: First in importance, rank, or quality; leading.