hindsight
Americannoun
noun
-
the ability to understand, after something has happened, what should have been done or what caused the event
-
a firearm's rear sight
Etymology
Origin of hindsight
Explanation
People who are able to look back on the past and understand what happened have hindsight. If you go skating on a frozen lake and it cracks, in hindsight you'd know you should've paid attention to the giant "danger" sign. Hindsight is like looking behind you to see what just happened (behind sight, get it?). Another way of describing retrospection, hindsight is a useful skill that can be cultivated. Hindsight often refers to a lesson learned from something going wrong. Billy Wilder, the American movie director, once commented wistfully, “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.” It's much easier to see clearly after something happened than before.
Vocabulary lists containing hindsight
Wonder
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Vocabulary from the Introduction to "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal
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10 Words that Inspired Taylor Swift
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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.
“Why should we have to move because these men around us can’t behave and are heckling and harassing me. No, we’re going back. In hindsight, I wish we would have left.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026
“In hindsight, companies probably overhired,” said Stahle at Indeed.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
To qualify as folly for this inquiry, the policy adopted must meet three criteria: it must have been perceived as counter-productive in its own time, not merely by hindsight .
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2026
But that whole episode now looks different with the benefit of hindsight.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
He supposed it made sense in hindsight that a nightmare had impersonated the truth, then settled in his mind.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
