1. relating to the time before the fall of Adam and Eve; innocent and unspoiled
Usage: theological; literary
2. characteristic of an innocent or idealized state before corruption or loss
Usage: literary

Examples

• The garden represented a prelapsarian paradise in the novel.
• His prelapsarian view of childhood ignored its complexities.
• The poet described a prelapsarian world free from sin.
• She longed for the prelapsarian innocence of her youth.
• The painting depicted humanity in its prelapsarian state.
• Critics noted the author’s prelapsarian vision of rural life.