foresee
Americanverb (used with object)
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foresees,
present (3rd person singular)
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foresaw,
past
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foreseen,
past participle
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foreseeing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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foresees,
present (3rd person singular)
-
foresaw,
past
-
foreseen,
past participle
-
foreseeing
present participle
verb
Usage
What does foresee mean? To foresee is to know in advance, as in With all the rain we’ve been having, it was easy to foresee that the river would overflow its banks. Foresee is different from predict or forecast because to foresee is to know, while to predict or forecast is to guess or calculate rather than to know. Sometimes, though, foresee is used as a synonym for predict to exaggerate one’s confidence in a prediction. Example: I can foresee where this is going and I want no part of it.
Synonym Usage
See predict.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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foreseernoun
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foreseeableadjective
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unforeseeingadjective
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unforeseenadjective
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well-foreseenadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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foreseesimple
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foreseessimple
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have foreseenperfect
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has foreseenperfect
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am foreseeingprogressive
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are foreseeingprogressive
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is foreseeingprogressive
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have been foreseeingperfect progressive
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has been foreseeingperfect progressive
Past
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foresawsimple
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had foreseenperfect
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was foreseeingprogressive
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were foreseeingprogressive
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had been foreseeingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foresee
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English foresēon. See fore-, see 1
Explanation
When you foresee something, you predict or realistically envision it happening. Did you foresee your team winning the playoffs, or were you surprised? Think of foresee as “to see before.” Prophets in literature are able to foresee events that come to pass; in Greek mythology Tiresias is known for his ability to foresee the future. But foresee is not always linked to a supernatural sense. Regular people can foresee events by imagining them taking place — and sometimes we use this as a way of prevention. If you foresee yourself failing geometry if you don’t study more, you will probably hit the books.
Vocabulary lists containing foresee
Power Prefix: fore-
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Walk Two Moons
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“If I can foresee this, then I think an engineer who’s designing the product can foresee it too.”
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
Alex: I foresee another trophyless season ahead for Rangers - no cohesion, no fight, no skill, nothing.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Plus, economists foresee stubborn inflation with strengthened growth and employment, while the U.S. and Iran reckon with shrinking options to end the war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
This is going to be painful in ways that you can’t foresee, but if you remain adaptable and empathetic, you could be embarking on an illuminating chapter of your life.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026
Good thing, perhaps, that one can't foresee the future.
From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
In its first look into 2027, the International Energy Agency said it foresees the return of an oil glut due to record investments.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
The agreement foresees a phased lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports as well as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, something European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said should happen immediately.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
If Fidesz were to win those seats, he foresees a potential victory.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026
Arm Holdings foresees significant demand for its chips as swarms of intelligent agents require ever-more processing capacity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
“Lord Voldemort foresees a moment in the near future when he will not need a spy at Hogwarts?”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
At the start of the season nobody foresaw much, if any, of this.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
As governor he foresaw the economic advantages of cultivating Japanese auto manufacturers for investment in Tennessee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Has the office served its purpose, or has it lingered one bureaucracy layered on top of a bunch of other bureaucracies, as some critics foresaw?
From Slate ● Jun. 15, 2026
Playing at Knott’s has forged meaningful connections to the community in ways Dangerously never foresaw in his early rock ‘n’ roll days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
‘Piper foresaw the two of us going down there, so that’s what needs to happen.’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
While some supply-chain-related impact to IBM’s prior expectations were foreseen, “we did not anticipate the magnitude of the capex reprioritization,” Krishna said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
What Lily couldn’t have foreseen, of course, was that her amateur detective skills would become necessary when, one day, George is found dead, and the investigation by a bumbling local policeman isn’t up to snuff.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
"I am sure that you could and should have reasonably foreseen the risk," said Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
He could never have foreseen that a year and a half later, he’d be playing for a longtime Giants rival, already at the third stop of his young career.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026
Although he had never thought of it as an omen, Colonel Aureliano Buendía had foreseen the tragic end of his sons in a certain way.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
He is shifting Brazil exposure to longer-term bonds, foreseeing a “neutral” interest rate of 10% to 11%, eventually.
From Barron's ● Dec. 23, 2025
The older she’s gotten, however, the more trouble she has had foreseeing ever getting married at all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2025
Zarqa Al Yamama is the story of a blue-eyed tribal matriarch with the gift of foreseeing the future in pre-Islamic Arabia.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2024
Regulators’ fascination with foreseeing how the tech giants could harm competition stems largely from their perceived failure to do so in the past.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2023
“That’s the one,” said Harry, foreseeing a great danger and determining to prevent it immediately.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
