future perfect

American  

[fyoo-cher pur-fikt] / ˈfyu tʃər ˈpɜr fɪkt /

noun

1. a verb construction, in English made up of the auxiliary verb will followed by a verb in the present perfect, used to express an action or state to be completed at or before a particular point of reference in time to come, such as By this time tomorrow, you will have given your speech and Next month she will have been cancer-free for six years.

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adjective

1. designating a verb construction used to express an action or state to be completed at or before a particular point of reference in time to come.

future perfect British  

adjective

1. denoting a tense of verbs describing an action that will have been performed by a certain time. In English this is formed with will have or shall have plus the past participle

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noun

1. 1. the future perfect tense

   2. a verb in this tense

Etymology

Origin of future perfect

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

"As the future perfect turns into the present perfect, we can apply ourselves to creating a tolerable present and future — for ourselves and for the rest of life," Nijhuis writes.

From Salon • Apr. 1, 2021

Sociologist Karl Weick argues that we can make sense of the future only if we envision it as having already happened — that we think in the future perfect.

From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2017

Never was the future perfect put to better use.

From The New Yorker • May 30, 2016

In the 19th century there was a huge number of utopias written about future perfect lives, but the Second World War changed that.

From The Guardian • Sep. 12, 2015

In demotic there are distinguishable a present tense, imperfect, perfect, frequentative, future, future perfect, conjunctive and optative; also present, past and future negatives, &c.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein" by Various