prescient

[presh-uhnt, ‑ee-uhnt, pree-shuhnt, ‑shee-uhnt]

adjective

1. having prescience, or knowledge of things or events before they exist or happen; having foresight.

   The prescient economist was one of the few to see the financial collapse coming.

Other Word Forms

• presciently adverb
• nonprescient adjective
• nonpresciently adverb
• unprescient adjective
• unpresciently adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of prescient¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Old French, from Latin praesciēns (stem praescient- ), present participle of praescīre “to know beforehand,” equivalent to prae- “before” + scīre “to know”; pre- ( def. ); science ( def. )

Example Sentences

“The Handmaid’s Tale,” her prescient novel of totalitarian dictatorship, began with the group hanging scene, which was shifted to the back of the book.

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The prediction wasn’t just provocative — it was prescient.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about your prescient book “American Midnight,” and the crackdown on civil rights and freedoms in the post-World War I years.

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Waller has proven a prescient economist with intellectually coherent policy arguments.

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This is the little-known but prescient speech that Saladin Ambar expertly parses and intriguingly reinterprets in “Murder on the Mississippi.”

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Related Words

• farsighted