foreshadow

English

WOTD – 17 November 2025

Etymology

The verb is derived from fore- (prefix meaning ‘before with respect to time, earlier’) +‎ shadow (“to shade, cloud, or darken”, verb).[1]

The noun is derived from fore- +‎ shadow (“faint and imperfect representation”, noun), probably modelled after the verb which is attested earlier.[2]

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation)
    • (verb) IPA(key): /fɔːˈʃædəʊ/, /ˌfɔːˈʃædəʊ/, /fə-/
    • (noun) IPA(key): /ˈfɔːˌʃædəʊ/
    • Audio (Southern England); /ˌfɔːˈʃædəʊ/:(file)
    • Rhymes: -ædəʊ
  • (General American)
    • (verb) IPA(key): /fɔɹˈʃædoʊ/, /fəɹ-/
    • (noun) IPA(key): /ˈfɔɹˌʃædoʊ/
    • Audio (General American):(file)
  • Hyphenation: fore‧sha‧dow

Verb

foreshadow (third-person singular simple present foreshadows, present participle foreshadowing, simple past and past participle foreshadowed) (transitive)

  1. To suggest (someone or something) in advance; to prefigure, to presage. [from 16th c.]
    • 1575, Martin Luther, “The Third Chapter. Verse 17.”, in [Thomas Vautrollier], transl., A Commentarie of M. Doctor Martin Luther upon the Epistle of S. Paule to the Galathians, […], revised edition, [London]: […] Thomas Vautroullier […] for William Norton, published 1588, →OCLC, folio 146, verso:
      [T]he ceremonies commaunded in the lawe, did foreſhadowe Chriſt.
    • a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “An Exposition on the Creed”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume VI, London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1831, →OCLC, page 520:
      [T]hat the excellency and efficacy of this [Jesus's] death and passion might appear, it was by manifold types foreshadowed, and in divers prophecies foretold.
    • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 150:
      "Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said [Ebenezer] Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"
    • 1842, Martin Farquhar Tupper, “Of Neglect”, in Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated (Second Series), London: J[ohn] Hatchard and Son, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 133:
      A good man's praise foreshadoweth God's, and in His smile is heaven: […]
    • 1857 June 28 (date delivered), Charles H[addon] Spurgeon, “[Sermon] 138: Prayer—The Forerunner of Mercy—Ezek[iel] 36:37: A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, June 28th, 1857, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens”, in Spurgeon’s Sermons […], volume III, [United States]: Classic Christian Library, published 1994–2023?, page 535:
      Even as the cloud foreshadoweth rain, so prayer foreshadoweth the blessing; even as the green blade is the beginning of the harvest, so is prayer the prophecy of the blessing that is about to come.
    • 1906, Arthur Dillon, King Arthur Pendragon, London: Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 116:
      I have inveigled Tristan and Iseult / Back into this thy court—to Tristan's death, / And my installing as apparent heir, / As thou foreshadowedst.
      An archaism.
    • 1939, Philonis Alexandrini [i.e., Philo], “Text and Translation”, in Herbert Box, transl., In Flaccum […], London; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 45:
      Thou foreshadowest for us good hopes even for the amendment for what is being left, now that Thou hast already begun to give assent to our prayers, […]
    • 2007, Edwin Mullins, “Palaces and Petrarch”, in Avignon of the Popes: City of Exiles, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Signal Books, published 2017, →ISBN, page 84:
      It all sounds to us remarkably nineteenth-century; Petrarch's romantic sentiments foreshadow with uncanny precision those of Dante Gabriel Rossetti or Alfred de Musset.
    • 2013, Heide Goody, Iain Grant, “The Novel Writing Process”, in How to Write a Collaborative Novel, [Birmingham, West Midlands]: Pigeon Park Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Writing Your Collaborative Novel):
      If there is a significant or surprising event in the story, it must be foreshadowed earlier on. When the event that was foreshadowed occurs, that's the payoff.
  2. (rare) Of a person: to have an intuition or premonition about (something); to forebode.

Conjugation

Conjugation of foreshadow
infinitive (to) foreshadow
present tense past tense
1st-person singular foreshadow foreshadowed
2nd-person singular foreshadow, foreshadowest† foreshadowed, foreshadowedst†
3rd-person singular foreshadows, foreshadoweth† foreshadowed
plural foreshadow
subjunctive foreshadow foreshadowed
imperative foreshadow —
participles foreshadowing foreshadowed

† Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

foreshadow (plural foreshadows)

  1. A suggestion of something in advance; a harbinger, a portent.
    Synonyms: foretouch, foreshadowing; see also Thesaurus:omen

Translations

References

  1. ^ “foreshadow, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025; “foreshadow, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “foreshadow, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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