fore

Fore– is a prefix meaning “before,” “front,” or “superior.” It is occasionally used in everyday and technical terms. In some terms, such as fore-check, the prefix is separated from the second element with a hyphen.

Fore– comes from Old English for(e), meaning “before” or “front.” The Latin cognate and translation is prae “before,” which is the source of pre–, as in prefix and preposition. Learn more at our entry for each word.

One example of a word that you may have encountered that features the prefix fore– is forebode, “to foretell or predict; be an omen of; portend.”

The prefix fore– means “before.” The –bode part of the word is a verb meaning “to be an omen of” or “portend,” from Old English bodian. Forebode literally means “to portend before (something).”

What are some words that use the prefix fore-?

• forecast
• forehead
• foreknowledge
• forerunner
• foresight

What are some other forms that fore– may be commonly confused with?

• flor-
• flori-

Not every word that begins with the exact letters fore-, such as forensic or foreign, is necessarily using the prefix fore– to denote “before.” Learn why forensic means “rhetorical” at our entry for the word.

Given the meaning of the prefix fore-, what is foreknowledge?