Definition of prolepses:
(n) :
(rhetoric) The anticipation of an objection to an argument.
(n) :
(rhetoric) The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.
(n) :
(narratology) The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device.
(n) :
(grammar, rhetoric) A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.
(n) :
(philosophy, epistemology) A so-called "preconception", i.e., a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.
(n) :
(botany) Growth in which lateral branches develop from a lateral meristem, after the formation of a bud or following a period of dormancy, when the lateral meristem is split from a terminal meristem.