foresight

American  

[fawr-sahyt, fohr-] / ˈfɔrˌsaɪt, ˈfoʊr- /

noun

• foresights
  plural

1. care or provision for the future; provident care; prudence.

2. the act or power of foreseeing; prevision; prescience.

3. an act of looking forward.

4. knowledge or insight gained by or as by looking forward; a view of the future.

   Synonyms:

   foreknowledge

5. Surveying.

   1. a sight or reading taken on a forward point.

   2. (in leveling) a rod reading on a point the elevation of which is to be determined.

---

foresight British  

/ ˈfɔːˌsaɪt /

noun

1. provision for or insight into future problems, needs, etc

2. the act or ability of foreseeing

3. the act of looking forward

4. surveying a reading taken looking forwards to a new station, esp in levelling from a point of known elevation to a point the elevation of which is to be determined Compare backsight

5. the front sight on a firearm

---

Synonym Usage

See prudence.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• foresightedness
  noun
• foresighted
  adjective
• foresightful
  adjective
• foresightedly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• foresights
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of foresight

First recorded in 1250–1300, foresight is from the Middle English word forsight. See fore-, sight

---

Explanation

Use the noun foresight to describe successful planning for the future. When it starts raining hard during your long walk to school, you'll wish you had the foresight to bring an umbrella. The word foresight is made of two parts: fore, which means "before," and sight, which means "to perceive." People often perceive things with their eyes: this is vision, or sight. But vision can also describe what someone thinks will happen in the future — and foresight is planning for things before they happen.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foresight foresights

If you’re a wealthy celebrity who had the foresight to freeze your eggs—or who wants to use an egg donor—it’s an expensive but relatively simple route to parenthood.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

But that would involve interaction with a lot of fluids, the very agent of transmission of Ebola, so Anoko reminds them how ancestors in their culture have foresight.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

“Financial markets are reacting to the geopolitical back-and-forth with a sense of foresight, which currently reduces the pressure on central banks to act,” analysts at Raiffeisen Bank said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

No one saw that coming when shares were spun out of GE on April 2, 2024, after Larry Culp had the foresight to break up General Electric.

From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026

“Dain told me that he’d been given a foresight about the child. Is this important or are you just curious?”

From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black

Most of my work deals with the next 5 years, and it’s more about pretty obvious foresights rather than ‘predictions’.

From Forbes ● Jul. 8, 2014

I milk-ed the lowing kine and water-ed and fed the steed, and then, after my fru-gal repast, I clos-ed the man-si-on, shutting out all re-collections of the past and also foresights into the future.

From Rudder Grange by Frank Richard Stockton

It lifted again, and lo! his brain was full of memories and foresights.

From The Brethren by Henry Rider Haggard

I might take him, and a level along, and go over the foresights and backsights myself.

From The Young Engineers in Colorado Or, At Railwood Building in Earnest by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock

They are the outgrowth of spiritual reality, as well as of human experience; they repeat the foregleams and foresights of a "far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves."

From George Eliot; a Critical Study of Her Life, Writings & Philosophy by George Willis Cooke

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• insight
• prudence

---