noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An introduction; something that leads into the beginning of something.

   "After the long lead-in, the climax of the story was a disappointment."

2. 2
   wire connecting an antenna to a receiver or a transmitter to a transmission line wordnet
3. 3
   A region of data at the beginning of a compact disc, holding the table of contents.
4. 4
   the introductory section of a story wordnet
5. 5
   A short phrase that begins the caption of a photograph.

Synonyms

All synonyms

forewordintroductionkickerleadledepreface

Example

More examples

"I think one of the things you just said in your lead-in is a little bit off."

Etymology

Deverbal from lead in.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.