foresee

[fawr-see]

verb (used with object)

foresaw, foreseen, foreseeing. 

1. to have prescience of; to know in advance; foreknow.

   Synonyms: discern, divine

2. to see beforehand.

verb (used without object)

foresaw, foreseen, foreseeing. 

1. to exercise foresight.

foresee

/ fɔːˈsiː /

verb

1. (tr; may take a clause as object) to see or know beforehand

   he did not foresee that

Other Word Forms

• foreseeable adjective
• foreseer noun
• unforeseeing adjective
• unforeseen adjective
• well-foreseen adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of foresee¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English foresēon. See fore-, see ¹

Synonym Study

See predict.

Example Sentences

Three industry forecasters, the National Association of Realtors, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and Fannie Mae, foresee a pickup in home sales in 2026 as buying costs ease.

Read more on Barron's

“I foresee the spooky Madame will have very good fortune indeed. Her Gypsy cakes will become an international success!”

Read more on Literature

“Or are people in her profession able to foresee such calamities and avoid them?”

Read more on Literature

But I would foresee that Guy might look at this and say, well come back via the European tour, earn one of the 10 cards and make your way back that way.

Read more on BBC

“I don’t foresee ever needing to hire another junior engineer again,” he said.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• discern 
• envisage 
• expect 
• forecast 
• foretell 
• perceive 
• presage 

When To Use

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.