Forethink

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To plan (something) in advance; think, consider, or contrive beforehand; prognosticate. rare, transitive

    "O vain sorceress , that could be wary to avoid the punishment of Saul ; careless to avoid the judgment of God ! Could we forethink what our sin would cost us , we durst not but be innocent"

  2. 2
    To think about beforehand; to anticipate. rare, transitive

    "[…]and the soul of every man / Prophetically doth forethink thy fall."

Synonyms

All synonyms
calculateplanplotpredeterminepremeditatescheme

Example

More examples

"O vain sorceress , that could be wary to avoid the punishment of Saul ; careless to avoid the judgment of God ! Could we forethink what our sin would cost us , we durst not but be innocent"

Etymology

From Middle English forethynken, from Old English fōreþenċan (“to premeditate, consider, be mindful”), corresponding to fore- + think. Cognate with Dutch voordenken, German vordenken (“to think ahead”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.