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.
Related Words
See predict.
Other Word Forms
- foreseeable adjective
- foreseer noun
- unforeseeing adjective
- unforeseen adjective
- well-foreseen adjective
Etymology
Origin of foresee
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English foresēon. See fore-, see 1
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.
"The affected staff have been without pay for over 10 months, and it is impossible to foresee when or if they could resume their duties due to circumstances entirely beyond UNRWA’s control," the spokesperson said.
From Barron's
The rule of law requires that clear limits bind the government such that people can foresee how a state will use its legal authority and plan their lives accordingly.
And while viewers will definitely be talking about those classic spectacles, I can already foresee the chatter for less-typical candidates lasting longer and being far more impactful.
From Salon
They foresee a deal where their defaulted bonds will be repaid through increased oil production in Venezuela.
But that Qiu was in town at all suggests an intelligence failure for Beijing in not foreseeing the U.S. strike.
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.
