WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

front matter
    n 1: written matter preceding the main text of a book [syn:
         front matter, prelims]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

111 Moby Thesaurus words for "front matter":
   acknowledgments, anteriority, article, avant-propos, back,
   back matter, bastard title, bibliography, bold front, book,
   brave face, brave front, breakthrough, catch line, catchword,
   chapter, clause, colophon, contents, contents page, copyright page,
   dedication, display, endleaf, endpaper, endsheet, errata, exordium,
   facade, face, facet, facia, fascicle, flyleaf, folio, fore,
   fore edge, forefront, foreground, forehand, foreland, forepart,
   forequarter, foreside, foreword, front, front elevation, front man,
   front page, front view, frontage, frontal, frontier, frontispiece,
   gathering, half-title page, head, heading, imprint, index,
   innovation, inscription, introduction, lap, leaf, leap, makeup,
   number, obverse, overture, page, paragraph, passage, phrase,
   postulate, preamble, preface, prefix, prefixture, preliminaries,
   preliminary, prelude, premise, presupposition, priority, proem,
   prolegomena, prolegomenon, prolepsis, prologue, proscenium,
   protasis, recto, reverso, running title, section, sentence, sheet,
   signature, subtitle, table of contents, tail, text, title,
   title page, trim size, type page, verse, verso, voluntary,
   window dressing