foretell

Syllables: fore·tell/fɔɹˈtɛl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia[foːˈteɫ]

foretell verb: to predict; to tell (the future) before it occurs; to prophesy.

Verb

foretell (third-person singular simple present foretells, present participle foretelling, simple past and past participle foretold)

(ambitransitive) To predict; to tell (the future) before it occurs; to prophesy.
- Deeds then undone me faithful tongue foretold.1725–1726, Homer, “Book 2”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
- Prodigies, foretelling the future eminence and lustre of his character.1741, Conyers Middleton, The Life of Cicero
Synonyms:

foresay, forespeak
(transitive) To tell (a person) of the future.
- […] there came to him a Person named Saul, whom Samuel had never before seen; but God made him know it was the same he had foretold him of.1739, Edward Button, Rudiments of Ancient History

foretell meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

foretell in Hindi

to predict the future: आगम बाँधना āgam bāndhnā, पेशगोई करना peśgoī karnā, भविष्यवाणी करना bhaviṣyavāṇī karnā, पूर्वकथन करना pūrvakthan karnā

foretell in Tamil

ஆரூடம் கணித்தல்

foretell in Urdu

پیش گوئی کرنا

foretell in Malayalam

മുന്നറിയിക്കുക, പ്രവചിക്കുക, ദീർഘഫലം പറയുക, മുൻകൂട്ടി പറയുക

More languagesFewer languages

foretell in Kannada: ಭವಿಷ್ಯನುಡಿ, ಮೊದಲೇಹೇಳು, ಕಣಿಹೇಳು, ನುಡಿಯಾಡು
foretell in Sanskrit: शास्ति śā́sti, ईक्ष् īkṣ, ईक्षते ī́kṣate, शंस् śaṃs
foretell in Arabic: تَكَهَّنَ takahhana, تَنَبَّأَ tanabbaʔa
foretell in Indonesian: meramal, meramalkan
foretell in Vietnamese: tiên tri

Examples of foretell in a sentence

Held captive by society against their own free wills, the precogs are destined to foretell disturbing precrimes.
Therefore the Spirit and the Gospel will be found in the Christ, who was foretrusted, because foretold.
It has all been foretold, forelived, Tridib being, so to speak, the novel's ur-imagination, ur-hero, ur-narrator.

All 13 example sentences with foretell

Synonyms of foretell

Forms of foretell

third-person singular present	foretells
present participle	foretelling
past participle	foretold
past	foretold
alternative form (obsolete)	foretel

Past tense of foretell: foretold

Origin of foretell

First use appears before 1400, from Middle English foretellen, equivalent to fore- + tell.

Words formed from foretell

Words that rhyme with foretell

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about foretell

What does foretell mean?: Foretell means to predict; to tell (the future) before it occurs; to prophesy.
What is foretell in Hindi?: Foretell in Hindi is आगम बाँधना (āgam bāndhnā), पेशगोई करना (peśgoī karnā), भविष्यवाणी करना (bhaviṣyavāṇī karnā). See Foretell meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is foretell?: Foretell is a verb.
How do you pronounce foretell?: Foretell is pronounced /fɔɹˈtɛl/.
What is the past tense of foretell?: The past tense of foretell is foretold.

Words near foretell in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: foretell (page history and authors); foretell (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); foretell (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); foretell (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); foretell (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ईक्षते (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-foretell.ogg.

Cite this entry: “foretell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foretell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.