foresight means the ability, or the due use of one's ability, to foresee or prepare wisely for the future. It carries an Arena rating of 1728, earned across 13 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, foresight ranks #1,127 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #4,258 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,671 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #5,740 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
foresight is pronounced /ˈfɔɹsaɪt/.
Why “foresight” is a great word
The capacity to anticipate likely future events and to take sensible, preparatory action because of that anticipation. From Middle English forsight, a calque of Latin prōvidentia, formed from the prefix fore- ("before") + sight ("perception, vision"), first attested in the 14th century. Unlike "hindsight," which arrives burdened with regret, clarifying only what is already lost, or "prescience," which glimmers with oracle-like certainty, foresight is the quiet, deliberate work of preparation—the farmer reading the season’s first dark cloud on the horizon and securing the barn door, the diplomat parsing a minor treaty clause and quietly reinforcing a distant border, the architect allowing extra foundation for a tree whose sapling form belies its future thirst. It is not prophecy, but vigilance; a sober pact with time to soften its inevitable blows, measured in the warmth of a fire lit before the sun fully fades.
Etymology
From Middle English forsight, forsyght, forsichte (since 14th c.), a calque of Latin providentia. By surface analysis, fore- + sight. Compare Scots foresicht, Saterland Frisian Foarsicht, archaic Dutch voorzicht (now voorzichtigheid), German Vorsicht (all “caution, foresight”).
noun
- The ability, or the due use of one's ability, to foresee or prepare wisely for the future.e.g.“Near-synonym: forethought”
- The ability to foresee future events in a supernatural or paranormal way, such as psychically.
- The front sight on a firearm (e.g., rifle, handgun).e.g.“Holonym: iron sights”
- A bearing taken forwards towards a new object.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.