foresight

American  

[fawr-sahyt, fohr-] / ˈfɔrˌsaɪt, ˈfoʊr- /

noun

• foresights
  plural

1. care or provision for the future; provident care; prudence.

2. the act or power of foreseeing; prevision; prescience.

3. an act of looking forward.

4. knowledge or insight gained by or as by looking forward; a view of the future.

   Synonyms:

   foreknowledge

5. Surveying.

   1. a sight or reading taken on a forward point.

   2. (in leveling) a rod reading on a point the elevation of which is to be determined.

---

foresight British  

/ ˈfɔːˌsaɪt /

noun

1. provision for or insight into future problems, needs, etc

2. the act or ability of foreseeing

3. the act of looking forward

4. surveying a reading taken looking forwards to a new station, esp in levelling from a point of known elevation to a point the elevation of which is to be determined Compare backsight

5. the front sight on a firearm

---

Synonym Usage

See prudence.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• foresightedness
  noun
• foresighted
  adjective
• foresightful
  adjective
• foresightedly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• foresights
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of foresight

First recorded in 1250–1300, foresight is from the Middle English word forsight. See fore-, sight

---

Explanation

Use the noun foresight to describe successful planning for the future. When it starts raining hard during your long walk to school, you'll wish you had the foresight to bring an umbrella. The word foresight is made of two parts: fore, which means "before," and sight, which means "to perceive." People often perceive things with their eyes: this is vision, or sight. But vision can also describe what someone thinks will happen in the future — and foresight is planning for things before they happen.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foresight foresights

If you’re a wealthy celebrity who had the foresight to freeze your eggs—or who wants to use an egg donor—it’s an expensive but relatively simple route to parenthood.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

Those who hope to unplug on Friday evening with no foresight will likely find themselves restless.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

But that would involve interaction with a lot of fluids, the very agent of transmission of Ebola, so Anoko reminds them how ancestors in their culture have foresight.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

No one saw that coming when shares were spun out of GE on April 2, 2024, after Larry Culp had the foresight to break up General Electric.

From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026

The cross-stitch itself was tedious, but the prospects were beautiful; Mother had the foresight to give me a botanical motif, knowing how I love green and growing things.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Most of my work deals with the next 5 years, and it’s more about pretty obvious foresights rather than ‘predictions’.

From Forbes ● Jul. 8, 2014

If this life on the earth, where man feels himself a stranger, be his all, how superfluously he is equipped with foresights and longings that outrun every conceivable limit!

From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by William Rounseville Alger

He dressed and breakfasted with all the petty foresights that can mean the shaving of clearance in a tight squeeze, and got off with all the margin of time he could muster.

From A Matter of Proportion by Anne Walker

It was, perhaps, one of those strange mental foresights, peculiar to certain temperaments, whereby the individual is sometimes warned of impending danger, and feels oppressed by a weight of despondency impossible to shake off.

From Ella Barnwell A Historical Romance of Border Life by Emerson Bennett

I milk-ed the lowing kine and water-ed and fed the steed, and then, after my fru-gal repast, I clos-ed the man-si-on, shutting out all re-collections of the past and also foresights into the future.

From Rudder Grange by Frank Richard Stockton

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• insight
• prudence

---