• IPA: /pɹoʊˈlɛpsɪs/

prolepsis

1. (rhetoric) The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.
2. (logic) The anticipation of an objection to an argument.
   • [1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, OCLC 1062248511 ↗, page 59 ↗:

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

3. (grammar, rhetoric) A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.
4. (philosophy, epistemology) A so-called "preconception", i.e. a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.
5. (botany) 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.
6. (authorship) The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device.

• (representation of something that has occurred before its time) anachronism, flashforward, foreshadowing
• (anticipation of objection to an argument) procatalepsis
• (grammar, rhetoric) left dislocation

• (botany) syllepsis

• -lepsy
• syllepsis

• French: prolepse

• French: prolepse
• German: Prolepsis, Prolepse
• Spanish: prolepsis