foreshadow
Americanverb (used with object)
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foreshadows,
present (3rd person singular)
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foreshadowed,
past participle, past
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foreshadowing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
foreshadowsimple
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foreshadowssimple
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have foreshadowedperfect
-
has foreshadowedperfect
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am foreshadowingprogressive
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are foreshadowingprogressive
-
is foreshadowingprogressive
-
have been foreshadowingperfect progressive
-
has been foreshadowingperfect progressive
Past
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foreshadowedsimple
-
had foreshadowedperfect
-
was foreshadowingprogressive
-
were foreshadowingprogressive
-
had been foreshadowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foreshadow
Explanation
To foreshadow is to predict something or to give a hint of what is to come. Your kid sister's ability to take apart a toaster and put it back together might foreshadow a successful career in electronics. The verb foreshadow can mean "to warn" and often has a suggestion of something bad to come, though sometimes it's more neutral or shows examples of both good and bad predictions. Dark gray clouds foreshadow a thunderstorm, just as spring showers foreshadow May flowers. What is foreshadowed doesn't always happen, though. A story might not foreshadow a happily-ever-after ending, but it can take an unexpected twist where the villain turns out to be a hero.
Vocabulary lists containing foreshadow
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 1
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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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:
Indeed, months of drought and heat waves tend to foreshadow the fiercest wildfires.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
Yet many of the body plans seen in those ancient animals foreshadow features that later appeared in dinosaurs, birds, and other groups.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026
Consumer sentiment has also tumbled, and while that doesn’t always mean actual spending is about to drop, it could foreshadow problems in the months ahead.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
"You don't have to dramatise these things; you should, at least, acknowledge or foreshadow them."
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
Sturtevant’s rudimentary genetic map would foreshadow the vast and elaborate efforts to map genes along the human genome in the 1990s.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
History tells us that large and rapidly growing debt in major economies often foreshadows a financial crisis.
From Barron's ● Mar. 7, 2026
Viewed against such a prism, this foreshadows a period of sloppy price action or correction for the stock market.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 24, 2025
Analysts suggest imminent, further base rate cuts by the Bank of England appear unlikely, and uncertainty always foreshadows a Budget.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2025
The book foreshadows the fall of Leahy but does it gingerly and with grace.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2025
There was movement in the darkness, scuffling and shuffling, a redistribution of ancient centuries, an evasion of foreshadows.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Psychiatry’s embrace of Dr. Snyder’s finding was foreshadowed by a convergence of pre-existing forces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
His comments upon exiting might have foreshadowed the current difficulties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
That set foreshadowed the history lesson in Puerto Rican music Bad Bunny would soon give with "Debi Tirar Mas Fotos," which he promoted with a hometown concert residency.
From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026
Celtic's miserable afternoon was foreshadowed before a ball had been kicked in anger when sections of their sizeable travelling support halted play immediately by throwing bouncy balls and tennis balls on to the pitch.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
As previously discussed in chapter 2, Britain’s colonization of Indigenous lands in North America was foreshadowed by its colonization of the province of Ulster in northern Ireland.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
It was also foreshadowing for the young professionals in the audience who had not yet learned that being good at your job, or even great, wasn’t enough to keep it.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
So far, neither side is showing signs of backing down, foreshadowing a fight that could take years.
From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2026
Reinhart, the BNY economist, said the absence of foreshadowing makes Waller’s dissent more consequential.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
Rubin’s contemporaries from Wall Street today remember the $250 million loss as an ominous foreshadowing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 18, 2026
His way of talking to Mr. Norton had been a foreshadowing of my misfortune—just as I had sensed that it would be.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
