preparation
Pluralpreparations (some meanings)
- 1The act of getting ready for something, or the work done to make it happen.
Months of preparation went into the wedding.
The team's careful preparation paid off when the storm hit.
Similarplanning, groundwork, organization
Note
The general sense, and the one the rest grow out of: Middle English preparacion, through French from Latin praeparatio, and built in English as prepare plus -ation. Its most useful frame is in preparation for, as in going over notes in preparation for an exam. The phrase means 'so as to be ready for.' In this sense it is a mass noun, so it takes much or months of rather than a.
- 2The state or condition of being ready; readiness for what comes next.
The city's preparation for the hurricane saved many lives.
Years of training left her in a state of mental preparation for the championship.
Similarreadiness, preparedness
Oppositeunpreparedness, unreadiness
- 3A substance that has been made up for use, especially a medicine or remedy.
The pharmacist handed her a preparation for the rash.
Old recipes describe preparations made from boiled roots and honey.
Similarremedy, medicine, mixture, concoction, formulation
Note
Here the word turns from the work to its result: what has been prepared, above all a remedy. Unlike the act of getting ready, it can be counted, as in a preparation or several preparations. It usually names its ingredients with made from or of: a bitter preparation made from steamed herbs.
- 4A part of an animal body preserved and mounted as a specimen for study.
The anatomy lab kept a preparation of the dissected nerve.
Each preparation was carefully labeled and stored in fluid.
Similarspecimen
Note
In anatomy and medicine the word names the specimen itself: a dissected part of an animal body, treated and kept for examination, teaching or display. The same word also means the work of making it. So the preparation of the nerve can point to the act of preparing or to the finished object in its jar. Context, or a word like specimen, settles which.
- 5The sounding of a note as part of one chord so that, held over into the following chord, it forms a dissonance.
The suspension works only because the preparation establishes the note in the previous chord.
Counterpoint students learn to handle the preparation and resolution of every dissonance.
Note
A counterpoint term, the first of three stages in a suspension. A note sounds as a consonant member of one chord; that is the preparation. It is then held into the next chord, where it becomes dissonant, and finally resolves. Students learn the sequence as preparation, suspension, resolution. It has nothing to do with the prepared-piano objects, though both belong to music.
- 6An object placed between or on the strings of a prepared piano to alter its tone.
Cage's score specifies exactly where each preparation must sit on the strings.
The performer removed every preparation before playing the next piece.
Note
A term that follows from the prepared piano itself. The objects are bolts, screws, rubber wedges and the like, set among the strings to change pitch, timbre and attack. The result is percussive or inharmonic sound. Each object counts as one preparation, so the word is freely plural: a performer adds or removes preparations between pieces.
- 7Devotional exercises that introduce and lead into a religious office or service.
The monks recited a brief preparation before the daily office.
Her prayer book opened with a preparation for the evening service.
- 8The day before the Sabbath or another Jewish feast day, set aside for getting ready.
The crucifixion accounts place the event on the Preparation, just before the Sabbath.
Everything had to be finished during the Preparation, since no work was allowed afterward.
Note
A day named for what happens on it. All labor and cooking are finished before the Sabbath or a major feast, so the holy day itself can be kept free of work. In this use it usually takes a capital and the definite article, as in on the Preparation. That is how it appears in accounts of the crucifixion.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of preparation apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
The word came into Middle English as preparacion from Middle French preparacion, which came from Latin praeparatio (praeparationem). It is formed from 'prepare' plus the suffix '-ation'.