Prologue

How to spell prologue

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce prologue

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prologue mean?

1. nounAn introductory section at the beginning of a book, play, or other work that sets up what follows.

Prologue in a sentence

• The novel opens with a short prologue describing the town before the war.

• The director added a spoken prologue to explain the historical setting.

Where does prologue come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek prologos, which combined pro, meaning 'before', with logos, meaning 'word', 'speech', or 'discourse'. In ancient Greek drama a prologos was the opening section that set the scene before the main action and the chorus arrived. The term passed into Latin as prologus and then into Old French as prologue, keeping that final silent -gue spelling that French gave to words ending in the logos element. English adopted it in the 1300s, first for the introductory part of a poem or play and later for any opening passage of a book. The same logos root underlies a whole family of English words, including dialogue, epilogue, and catalogue, and noticing that shared -logue ending is the simplest way to remember the spelling.

How the word is built

• pro- (before)
• -logue (from Greek logos: word, speech)

British and American spelling

Prologue is the British spelling. American English spells it prolog.