1. a preliminary essay, discourse, or performance that serves as an introduction to a more substantial work
Usage: formal; literary

Examples

• The author’s brief prolusion outlined the themes he would explore in the novel.
• Her speech served as a prolusion to the main presentation.
• The professor’s prolusion prepared students for the complex theory to follow.
• The concert began with a musical prolusion before the symphony.
• His essay was merely a prolusion to his larger philosophical work.
• The prolusion gave audiences a taste of what was to come.