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''overture'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260331180822-00-⌔

overture - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

overture (plural overtures)

  • (obsolete) An opening; a recess or chamber. [15th–19th c.]
    • c. 1612’, George Chapman, A Hymne to Hermes
      • ✤ the cave’s inmost overture
  • (obsolete) Disclosure; discovery; revelation.
    • ✤ It was he
      That made the overture of thy treasons to us.      1
  • (often in plural) An approach or proposal made to initiate communication, establish a relationship etc. [from 15th c.]
    • ✤ * overture of friendship*
    • ✤ Shortly afterwards the North Eastern Railway made overtures for the purchase of the Blyth & Tyne system, and the directors of the latter were then disposed to sell, but, in view of their excellent dividend record, stood out for a good price.2
    • ✤ Sarkozy gave a defiant speech, going on the offensive and betraying no hint of having been beaten. He styled the result as a “crisis” vote, by a French population which was “suffering”. In a clear overture to Le Pen’s voters, and the extreme-right motto of loving France, he said: “I call on all French people who put love of their country above partisan considerations, to unite and join me.”3
    • ✤ My mother had no choice; one did not turn down such an overture from the regent.4
  • (Scotland) A motion placed before a legislative body, such as the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. [from 16th c.]
  • (music) A musical introduction to a longer piece of music or a dramatic work (such as a play, an opera, or a motion picture). [from 17th c.]
    • ✤ The overture was almost at a close; and silence being now more effective than any thing that he could urge in favour of the play, Courtenaye went behind the scenes:…5
  • (music) A medley of themes from a larger work, such as an opera or musical, typically played at the beginning but sometimes played at any part of the work or performed as a standalone piece.
    • ✤ The paradoxical use of an overture at the end of a concert occasionally gave rise to satire in the musical press.6

Verb

overture (third-person singular simple present overtures, present participle overturing, simple past and past participle overtured)

  • (intransitive) To make overtures; to approach with a proposal.
    • ✤ For a partner setting a table in a game of “house,” an overturing child might assume the role of the father returning home from work at dinnertime rather than overturing by throwing a ball toward the child and yelling “catch.”7

Adjective

overture (not comparable)

  • (heraldry, nonstandard) Overt, that is, disclosed.
    • ✤ Crest: A falcon, wings overture.8
    • ✤ It may be with wings close, i.e. closed, or it may be with its wings elevated, or it may be with wings disclosed, i.e. somewhat open, but inverted, and pointing downwards (and this is practically the same as the expression overt, written sometimes overture). […]
      Argent, an eagle recursant wings overture sable - BACK.
      Argent, an eagle rising, wings overt inverted gules, standing on a baston raguly in bend vert - William PORTER.      9
    • ✤ […] charged with a cross patty gules, and perched thereon a bird contourne reguardant, its wings overture, of the second; […]10

Etymology

From Middle English overture, from Anglo-Norman, Middle French overture, from Old French overture, from Latin apertūra. Doublet of aperture.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈəʊvətjʊə/, /ˈəʊvətʃ(ʊ)ə/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (US) IPA: /ˈoʊvəɹt͡ʃəɹ/

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]: ↩

  2. 1943 May and June, Charles E. Lee, “The Blyth & Tyne Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 138: ↩

  3. 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian ‎: ↩

  4. 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 20: ↩

  5. 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A First Night”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 66: ↩

  6. 2017 April 27, Steven Vande Moortele, The Romantic Overture and Musical Form from Rossini to Wagner, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 24: ↩

  7. 2012, K.H. Rubin, H.S. Ross, Peer Relationships and Social Skills in Childhood, page 44: ↩

  8. 1887, Edmund Farrer, The Church Heraldry of Norfolk, page 74: ↩

  9. 1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 215: ↩

  10. 1992, Donald R. Mandich, Joseph Anthony Placek, Russian Heraldry and Nobility, Dramco: ↩

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