foresee
Americanverb (used with object)
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foresees,
present (3rd person singular)
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foresaw,
past
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foreseen,
past participle
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foreseeing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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foresees,
present (3rd person singular)
-
foresaw,
past
-
foreseen,
past participle
-
foreseeing
present participle
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.
Synonym Usage
See predict.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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foreseernoun
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foreseeableadjective
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unforeseeingadjective
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unforeseenadjective
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well-foreseenadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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foreseesimple
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foreseessimple
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have foreseenperfect
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has foreseenperfect
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am foreseeingprogressive
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are foreseeingprogressive
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is foreseeingprogressive
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have been foreseeingperfect progressive
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has been foreseeingperfect progressive
Past
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foresawsimple
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had foreseenperfect
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was foreseeingprogressive
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were foreseeingprogressive
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had been foreseeingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foresee
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English foresēon. See fore-, see 1
Explanation
When you foresee something, you predict or realistically envision it happening. Did you foresee your team winning the playoffs, or were you surprised? Think of foresee as “to see before.” Prophets in literature are able to foresee events that come to pass; in Greek mythology Tiresias is known for his ability to foresee the future. But foresee is not always linked to a supernatural sense. Regular people can foresee events by imagining them taking place — and sometimes we use this as a way of prevention. If you foresee yourself failing geometry if you don’t study more, you will probably hit the books.
Vocabulary lists containing foresee
Power Prefix: fore-
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Walk Two Moons
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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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:
“If I can foresee this, then I think an engineer who’s designing the product can foresee it too.”
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
"We do not foresee a restart within the next 10 days," plant director Romeo Urjan told the AFP news agency.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
"We do not foresee a restart within the next ten days," the plant's director, Romeo Urjan, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
If their growth stays above AWS’s, it isn’t hard to foresee them surpassing their larger competitor by the end of the decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
There was no stratagem that he was not equal to, no danger that he could not foresee.
From "1984" by George Orwell
In its first look into 2027, the International Energy Agency said it foresees the return of an oil glut due to record investments.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
SpaceX says in its filing that it foresees $28.5 trillion—yes, trillion—in market opportunities, including data centers in space.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
If Fidesz were to win those seats, he foresees a potential victory.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026
The title character and occasional commentator, played as a gloomy babushka in a red headscarf by David Turner, foresees little hope for a glorious future.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
“Lord Voldemort foresees a moment in the near future when he will not need a spy at Hogwarts?”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
He foresaw a future in which Eliza would learn to model the user and the world through conversations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
At the start of the season nobody foresaw much, if any, of this.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
As governor he foresaw the economic advantages of cultivating Japanese auto manufacturers for investment in Tennessee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Has the office served its purpose, or has it lingered one bureaucracy layered on top of a bunch of other bureaucracies, as some critics foresaw?
From Slate ● Jun. 15, 2026
‘They arrived just as you foresaw, Enceladus! Well done!’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
No one could’ve foreseen the unobtrusively great career that Muncy has carved out for himself, specifically over the past nine seasons in Los Angeles since getting called up in 2018.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
The central bank said it expects inflation will continue to decline toward its 3% target but at a more gradual pace than previously foreseen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
While some supply-chain-related impact to IBM’s prior expectations were foreseen, “we did not anticipate the magnitude of the capex reprioritization,” Krishna said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
What Lily couldn’t have foreseen, of course, was that her amateur detective skills would become necessary when, one day, George is found dead, and the investigation by a bumbling local policeman isn’t up to snuff.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
I know he couldn't have foreseen this, must be hurting for me because, in fact, I believe he cares about me.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
But that Qiu was in town at all suggests an intelligence failure for Beijing in not foreseeing the U.S. strike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
He is shifting Brazil exposure to longer-term bonds, foreseeing a “neutral” interest rate of 10% to 11%, eventually.
From Barron's ● Dec. 23, 2025
Zarqa Al Yamama is the story of a blue-eyed tribal matriarch with the gift of foreseeing the future in pre-Islamic Arabia.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2024
New inflation figures are to be published Friday, with analysts at Deutsche Bank foreseeing another decline in overall inflation to 5.8%.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
At this those faces, cloaked in desolation upon the waste sea beach, were bared; their eyes turned toward me and the mighty lighting, foreseeing pleasure, one by one.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
