Prolepsis

//pɹoʊˈlɛpsɪs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it. countable, rhetoric, uncountable
  2. 2
    anticipating and answering objections in advance wordnet
  3. 3
    The anticipation of an objection to an argument. countable, rhetoric, uncountable

    "Prolepsis makes objections; then replies; And wisely thus anticipates surprise."

  4. 4
    A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond. countable, rhetoric, uncountable
  5. 5
    A so-called "preconception", i.e., a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world. countable, uncountable

    "Point (1) seems to imply that one may have a false judgement because of a mismatch between different criteria for truth. For example, my sensation is paired with a prolepsis of a horse, therefore I make an assertion that ‘there is a horse’, which upon further inspection may turn out to be a cow."

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  1. 6
    Growth in which lateral branches develop from a lateral meristem, after the formation of a bud or following a period of dormancy, when the lateral meristem is split from a terminal meristem. countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device. countable, uncountable

    "[…] [Edmund] Plovvden being of the Romiſh perſvvaſion, ſome Setters trapanned him (pardon the prolepſis) to hear Maſſe: But aftervvards Plovvden underſtanding, that the pretender to Officiate vvas no Prieſt, but a meer Lay-man (on deſigne to make a diſcovering) Oh! The caſe is altered quoth Plovvden: No Priest, no Maſſe."

Synonyms

All synonyms
anachronismanachronismanticipationbreakthroughcataphoraearliness

Example

More examples

"Prolepsis makes objections; then replies; And wisely thus anticipates surprise."

Etymology

From Latin prolepsis, from Ancient Greek πρόληψις (prólēpsis, “preconception, anticipation”), from προλαμβάνω (prolambánō, “take beforehand, anticipate”).

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