Word.ws English Dictionary

foretoken

foretoken noun: a prognostic; a premonitory sign; warning or presentiment.

Noun

foretoken (plural foretokens)

  1. A prognostic; a premonitory sign; warning or presentiment.
    • Therefore know you Gentlemen (to whom from my harte I wish that it may not proue ominous foretoke[n] of misfortune to haue mette with such a miser as I am) that whatsoeuer my sonne (ô God, that trueth binds me to reproch him with the name of my sonne) hath said, is true.1590, Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, Book II, ch. 10

Verb

foretoken (third-person singular simple present foretokens, present participle foretokening, simple past and past participle foretokened)

  1. (transitive) To betoken beforehand; prognosticate; foreshadow; give warning of; presage.

foretoken meaning in Tamil

foretoken in Tamil

முன் அடையாளம்

Forms of foretoken

Noun
pluralforetokens
Verb
third-person singular presentforetokens
present participleforetokening
past participleforetokened
pastforetokened

Origin of foretoken

From Middle English foretokne, fortacne, from Old English foretācn, foretācen (“foretoken, presage, prognostic, prodigy, sign, wonder”), equivalent to fore- + token. Cognate with Dutch voorteken, German Low German Vörteken, German Vorzeichen.

From Middle English *foretoknen, fortaknen, from Old English foretācnian (“to foreshow”).

Words formed from foretoken

Questions about foretoken

What does foretoken mean?
Foretoken means a prognostic; a premonitory sign; warning or presentiment.
What is foretoken in Tamil?
Foretoken in Tamil is முன் அடையாளம். See Foretoken meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is foretoken?
Foretoken can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of foretoken?
The plural of foretoken is foretokens.

Words near foretoken in the dictionary

  1. foretibial
  2. foretide
  3. foretides
  4. foretime
  5. foretimes
  6. foretoken
  7. foretokened
  8. foretokeneth
  9. foretokening
  10. foretokenings
  11. foretokens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foretoken (page history and authors); foretoken (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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