Word.ws English Dictionary

forethought

/ˈfɔː(ɹ)θɔːt/

forethought noun: thinking beforehand or in advance, planning; prior or previous consideration. Also the simple past and past participle of forethink.

Noun

forethought (countable and uncountable, plural forethoughts)

  1. Thinking beforehand or in advance, planning; prior or previous consideration.
    • Near-synonym: foresight
    • With a little forethought we'd have planned for this contingency and not been stuck here now.
  2. Anticipation.
  3. Provident care; prudence.

Adjective

IPA/fɔː(ɹ)ˈθɔːt/

forethought (not comparable)

  1. Thought of, or planned, beforehand.
    • Forethought malice.c. 1613–1621, Francis Bacon, The judicial charge upon the commission of Oyer and Terminer held for the verge of the Court

Also used as

forethought is also the simple past and past participle of forethink.

forethought meaning in Malayalam

forethought in Malayalam

thinking beforehand
മുൻവിചാരം muṉvicāraṁ

Synonyms of forethought

Forms of forethought

pluralforethoughts

Origin of forethought

From Middle English forethouht, forethoght, from Old English *foreþōht (“forethought”); equivalent to fore- + thought. See also forethink.

Words formed from forethought

Words that rhyme with forethought

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about forethought

What does forethought mean?
Forethought means thinking beforehand or in advance, planning; prior or previous consideration.
What is forethought in Malayalam?
Forethought in Malayalam is മുൻവിചാരം (muṉvicāraṁ). See Forethought meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is forethought?
Forethought can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce forethought?
Forethought is pronounced /ˈfɔː(ɹ)θɔːt/.
What is the plural of forethought?
The plural of forethought is forethoughts.

Words near forethought in the dictionary

  1. forethink
  2. forethinker
  3. forethinkers
  4. forethinking
  5. forethinks
  6. forethought
  7. forethoughted
  8. forethoughtful
  9. forethoughtfully
  10. forethoughtfulness
  11. forethoughtless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forethought (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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