How to Use prefect in a Sentence

prefect

noun
  • The prefect left, and the talk slowed and stumbled into the night as sleep took hold.
    Ian McEwan, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
  • The prefect of the Var region, Evence Richard, told reporters that two people were killed.
    Arkansas Online, 19 Aug. 2021
  • The body of a woman was pulled from the mud, the Naples prefect, Claudio Palomba, told a news conference.
    Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 27 Nov. 2022
  • Under Benedict, he was named the prefect of the papal household—the gatekeeper to the Pope.
    Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2023
  • The Naples prefect, Claudio Palomba, said on Sunday that 15 homes had been overwhelmed by the stream of mud.
    Colleen Barry, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2022
  • The prefect of police for Paris is an old acquaintance of Gamache’s and at first seems an ideal ally.
    Tom Nolan, WSJ, 28 Aug. 2020
  • In recent months, the prefect of Oursi and the mayor of Koutougou, both rural communes in Soum province, have been killed.
    Brahima Ouedraogo, Fox News, 15 Aug. 2018
  • So a female chef de cabinet (head of staff) is now une cheffe, and a female préfet (prefect) is une préfète.
    The Economist, 17 May 2018
  • The tone of his letter seems to indicate that age and solitude have mellowed the once high-handed prefect.
    Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2022
  • The older two turned out to be rebels—her brother got kicked out of school for throwing rotten tomatoes at the prefect; her sister eloped at age 18.
    Evgenia Peretz, Vanities, 19 Apr. 2017
  • The letter was signed by the Vatican prefect and the secretary before the pope approved the text on Thursday and released the note Monday.
    Cassidy Morrison, Washington Examiner, 21 Dec. 2020
  • The Naples prefect confirmed that the death toll in the tragedy had risen to two, following also the recovery of the body of a 31-year-old woman from the island on Saturday.
    Colleen Barry, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2022
  • This list was given to prefects, who then put pressure on booksellers and publishers to purge their stocks.
    Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Slate Magazine, 20 Jan. 2017
  • Regional prefect Alexandre Rochatte said the body was found on a roadside after a home washed away in the capital of Basse-Terre.
    DÁnica Coto, ajc, 17 Sep. 2022
  • In the ancient city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga, the local mayor and a member of the United Russia party told district prefects to lead by example.
    The Economist, 3 Feb. 2018
  • The deputy prefect of the community of Kumba, Ali Anougou, blamed separatists who have been fighting the military in parts of western Cameroon.
    Joel Kouam, Star Tribune, 24 Oct. 2020
  • Much like real journalists might, the fake ones took a load off on the bases of the columns near the home to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where Benedict worked as prefect before his election as pope.
    New York Times, 9 May 2018
  • Paris’s police prefect has released photos of union members ripping up paving stones to be used as projectiles.
    Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 18 June 2016
  • During her research, Jatta reached out to the Vatican Library for some loans and soon developed a rapport with its prefect.
    Anton Corbijn, Vogue, 13 Feb. 2018
  • And the fact that most people will suspect neither its capabilities nor its expense is the prefect final reason to buy it.
    Hannah Elliott, Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2017
  • Paris was rebuilt by Baron Haussmann, his Alsatian prefect.
    Allan Massie, WSJ, 29 May 2018
  • The prefect of Guadeloupe said 11 people were arrested by police overnight Sunday into Monday.
    Elodie Soupama, ajc, 22 Nov. 2021
  • The prefect of Dirkou locality, Bachir Manzo, said Thursday that the dead included three babies, two children and 17 women.
    The Associated Press, The Seattle Times, 1 June 2017
  • Oxfam cited the case of 20 unaccompanied African youths returned to Italy — and a court decision this year in Nice that overruled France’s regional prefect who ordered them out.
    Washington Post, 15 June 2018
  • Francis created the Secretariat for the Economy, and named Pell its prefect, as a key part of his financial reform plans after being elected pope in 2013.
    Rod McGuirk, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Apr. 2020
  • In their first iteration, public urinals were phallic-looking columns commissioned by a Parisian city prefect fed up with the flocks of Frenchmen who regularly peed on sidewalks, streets and even the sides of buildings.
    Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, 7 Dec. 2019
  • In February, after his conviction became public, the Church confirmed that his position as the prefect of its secretariat for the economy had not been renewed.
    Hilary Whiteman, CNN, 20 Aug. 2019
  • The Naples prefect confirmed that five people remained missing, and feared buried under the debris of an enormous landslide that struck Casamicciola before dawn on Saturday.
    Bloomberg.com, 27 Nov. 2022
  • Some tombs at Hegra are the final resting places for high-ranking officers and their families, who, according to the writing on their tombs, took the adopted Roman military titles of prefect and centurion to the afterworld with them.
    Lauren Keith, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Nov. 2020
  • At least three government prefects — in Bergamo, Brescia and Matera — have tested positive for the virus, along with three Milan prosecutors, according to media reports.
    Bloomberg.com, 10 May 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prefect.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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