segue

See also: segué

English

WOTD – 7 December 2006

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian segue (“it follows”), from seguire (“to follow”), from Latin sequor; originally a term used in a musical score to indicate that the next movement or passage is to follow without a break. Cognate with Spanish seguir. Doublet of sue. Related to suit and sequence.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɡweɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɡweɪ
• Homophone: Segway

Verb

segue (third-person singular simple present segues, present participle segueing, simple past and past participle segued)

1. To move smoothly from one state or subject to another.

   Synonym: transition

   I can tell she’s going to segue from our conversation about school to the topic of marriage.

   • 2009 March 10, Rosie DiManno, “Murder reduced to infantile online postings”, in Toronto Star‎^[1], archived from the original on 13 March 2009:

     Then, in a staggering display of empathy for the deceased lacking, this friend segues to the narcissist nub of the matter: "Omg wat if yu get arrested b4 yur bdai."

   • 2024, Kira Wisniewski, Making structured data more accessible:

     I don't even know how you would start to do the cleanup work even though it's very much necessary. So then that also leads me to be like, are there people that we could talk to within the movement that could create tools or automations or how are those even informed in the first place? I mean, just to segue slightly, there's been a lot of conversation about Wikimania, about AI in general in varying different ways, and that's more or less what this is, is AI being like, a woman with a microphone is an artist or an entertainer, and so how do we retrain or do the cleanup of this AI to be more accurate?

2. (music) To make a smooth transition from one theme to another.

   Beethoven’s symphonies effortlessly segue from one theme to the next.

3. (of a disc jockey) To play a sequence of records with no talk between them.

Usage notes

In sense “move from one subject to another”, contrast with non sequitur (“abrupt transition”), which is etymologically opposite (“follow” vs. “does not follow”). However, segue has connotations of moving between distinct subjects, and thus to segue often means to change rather abruptly, with at best a pretense of smooth transition.

Translations

to move smoothly from one topic to another

• Dutch: van (nl) thema (nl) wisselen (nl)
• Finnish: siirtyä juohevasti, sujuvasti (fi), huomaamatta
• French: enchaîner (fr)
• Galician: encadear (gl), ligar, enlazar (gl)
• German: überleiten (de) (topic, conversation), wechseln (de) (state, position, etc.)
• Hungarian: átsiklik (hu), átvált (hu), áttér (hu)
• Portuguese: passar para
• Russian: пла́вно переходи́ть impf (plávno perexodítʹ), продолжа́ть та́к же impf (prodolžátʹ ták že)

music: to move smoothly from one theme to another

• Finnish: liukua (fi)
• French: enchaîner (fr)
• Galician: encadear (gl)
• German: überleiten (de)
• Hungarian: átvált (hu)

to play a sequence of records without talking in between

• Finnish: soittaa putkeen
• French: enchaîner (fr)
• Galician: encadear (gl)

Noun

segue (plural segues)

1. An instance of segueing, a transition.

Alternative forms

• segué

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sekʷ- (3 c, 0 e)

Translations

an instance of segueing, a transition

• Dutch: overgang (nl) m, bruggetje (nl)
• Finnish: siirtymä (fi)
• French: transition (fr) f
• Galician: transición (gl) f
• German: Übergang (de) m, Überleitung (de) f
• Hungarian: átváltás (hu), átmenet (hu), átvezetés (hu)
• Portuguese: passagem (pt), transição (pt)
• Romanian: tranziție (ro) f
• Russian: се́гуэ n (ségue), пла́вный перехо́д m (plávnyj perexód)
• Spanish: transición (es) f
• Swedish: övergång (sv) c

Galician

Verb

segue

1. inflection of segar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative
2. third-person singular present indicative of seguir
3. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of seguir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈse.ɡwe/, /ˈsɛ.ɡwe/
• Rhymes: -eɡwe, -ɛɡwe
• Hyphenation: sé‧gue, sè‧gue

Verb

segue

1. third-person singular present indicative of seguire

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛ.ɡi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛ.ɡi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛ.ɡe/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛ.ɡɨ/ [ˈsɛ.ɣɨ]

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Homophone: cegue
• Hyphenation: se‧gue

Verb

segue

1. inflection of seguir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative
2. inflection of segar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative