foreword
Americannoun
noun
Synonym Usage
See introduction.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of foreword
Explanation
Many students tend to skip the foreword at the beginning of a long novel, or go back and read it later. Use the noun foreword for an introduction that comes at the start of a book. A foreword is usually written by someone other than the author and it gives information about the critical reception of the book, personal history of the author, or some other extra detail of interest to the reader. The word foreword combines fore, "before, or first" and word, and it's closely connected to the German word for "preface," Vorwort.
Vocabulary lists containing foreword
Power Prefix: fore-
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Book Words for Book Worms
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: fore-
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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:
Roth was guided by what the critic Paul Goldberger, in his foreword to this book, calls “a strong knowledge not only of architectural history, but of urban propriety.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
The foreword has been penned by Jan Messent, a renowned authority on embroidery.
From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2025
In a foreword to the WFP's 2026 Global Outlook report, she said the world's response "remains slow, fragmented and underfunded".
From Barron's ● Nov. 18, 2025
With a foreword by Alexis Pauline Gumbs and an afterword by Imani Perry, the editors of this carefully curated collection weave a mosaic of narratives from those who studied with and were mentored by Jordan.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2025
Professor Albus Dumbledore agreed to provide a foreword that met the case, and we were both delighted that the book raised so much money for some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
Harris himself has contributed to Pickering's book - published by Manchester University Press - writing one of four forewords along with Martin Fry, Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher along with a separate chapter.
From BBC ● May 2, 2026
Their separate forewords to the committee’s final report, released Thursday, tell what united these unlikely partners.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 26, 2022
Barack Obama and George W. Bush were so supportive that they wrote forewords for them.
From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2022
Although she put away her pen, Cleary re-released three of her most cherished books with three famous fans writing forewords for the new editions.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 26, 2021
Why some should write in French, the forewords to the Nouvelles ordinaires set forth in an illuminating phrase: French was in the seventeenth century "a language that extended and was understood throughout Europe."
From The Anglo-French Entente in the Seventeenth Century by Bastide, Charles
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.
