Word.ws English Dictionary

forethink

forethink verb: to plan (something) in advance; think, consider, or contrive beforehand; prognosticate.

Verb

forethink (third-person singular simple present forethinks, present participle forethinking, simple past and past participle forethought)

  1. (rare, transitive) To plan (something) in advance; think, consider, or contrive beforehand; prognosticate.
    • 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 innocent1612–1634, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume (please specify |volume=I to VIII), London, →OCLC
  2. (rare, transitive) To think about beforehand; to anticipate.
    • […]and the soul of every man / Prophetically doth forethink thy fall.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • Let not thy divining heart / Forethinke me any ill [...].1635, John Donne, Song

Forms of forethink

third-person singular presentforethinks
present participleforethinking
past participleforethought
pastforethought

Origin of forethink

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”).

Words formed from forethink

Questions about forethink

What does forethink mean?
Forethink means to plan (something) in advance; think, consider, or contrive beforehand; prognosticate.
What part of speech is forethink?
Forethink is a verb.
What is the past tense of forethink?
The past tense of forethink is forethought.

Words near forethink in the dictionary

  1. foretested
  2. foretesting
  3. foretests
  4. forethigh
  5. forethighs
  6. forethink
  7. forethinker
  8. forethinkers
  9. forethinking
  10. forethinks
  11. forethought

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forethink (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.

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