Word.ws English Dictionary

forward

Syllables: for·wardUK/ˈfɔːwəd//ˈfɔɹwəɹd/

forward adjective: situated toward or at the front of something. Also the misspelling of foreword.

Adjective

forward (comparative further forward or farther forward or more forward or forwarder, superlative furthest forward or farthest forward or most forward or forwardmost or forwardest)

  1. Situated toward or at the front of something.
    • The fire was confined to the forward portion of the store.
    • the forward gun in a ship
    1. (guns etc.) Situated toward or near the enemy lines.
      • The forward battalion took a hammering.
  2. Acting in or pertaining to the direction in which someone or something is facing.
    • My forward vision is fine, but my peripheral vision is poor.
  3. Acting in or pertaining to the direction of travel or movement.
    • forward motion, forward thrust, forward momentum
  4. (figuratively) Moving in the desired direction of progress.
    • This is an important forward step for the country.
    • The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.1945 April 12, Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Franklin D. Roosevelt's Last Message to the American People”, in Library of Congress
  5. Having the usual order or sequence.
    • The front of the fire engine has backward writing, that can be read in a mirror, as well as forward writing.
  6. Expected or scheduled to take place in the future.
    • The stock price is currently 12 times forward earnings.
    • The price for forward delivery is presently higher than the spot price.
    Synonyms:
    forecast, predicted
  7. Advanced beyond the usual degree; advanced for the season; precocious.
    • These students are very forward in their learning.
    • The grass is forward, or forward for the season. We have a forward spring.
  8. Without customary restraint or modesty; bold, cheeky, pert, presumptuous or pushy.
    • She is a very forward young lady, not afraid to speak her mind.
    • […] the lady conceived the same desires with himself, and was on her side contriving how to give the captain proper encouragement, without appearing too forward; for she was a strict observer of all rules of decorum.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
  9. Prominent, emphasized (or, in combinations, emphasizing).
    • Pecan Porter […] beer is malty and rich with a very forward flavor of pecans with hints of molasses and burnt caramel and has a very great finish.2015 June 1, Mike Cortez, Beer Lover's Texas: Best Breweries, Brewpubs & Beer Bars, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 10
    • [Margaret Encino, seeking an Acme-Ashmun sponsorship:] And we could continue to make Acme-Ashmun forward content.2022 March 30, "Go Big or Go Home", Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey (Dropout), 2:39:31
  10. (obsolete) Ready; prompt; ardently inclined; in a bad sense, eager or hasty.
    • Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Galatians 2:10
    • Nor do we find him forward to be sounded.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Adverb

forward (not comparable)

  1. At, near or towards the front of something.
    • She was sitting well forward in the railway carriage.
    • The bus driver told everyone standing up to move forward.
    1. At, near, or towards the bow of a vessel (with the frame of reference within the vessel).
      • Most of the men are sleeping forward, for it is near midnight, but a stout swarthy Arab, Mahomed by name, stands at the tiller, lazily steering by the stars.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
  2. In the direction in which someone or something is facing.
    • I leant forward to get a better look.
    • The grandfather clock toppled forward and crashed to the ground.
  3. In the desired or usual direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively; onwards.
    • After spending an hour stuck in the mud, we could once again move forward.
    • Wind the film forward a few frames.
    Synonyms:
    ahead, forth, on, onward, onwards
  4. So that front and back are in the usual orientation.
    • Don't wear your baseball cap backward; turn it forward.
  5. In the usual order or sequence.
    • A palindrome reads the same backward as forward.
  6. Into the future.
    • From this day forward, there will be no more brussels sprouts at the cafeteria.
    • The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
  7. To an earlier point in time. See also bring forward.
    • The meeting has been moved forward an hour. It was at 3 o'clock; now it's at 2 o'clock.

Verb

forward (third-person singular simple present forwards, present participle forwarding, simple past and past participle forwarded)

  1. (transitive) To advance, promote.
    • He did all he could to forward the interests of the school.
    • Mary had a suspicion that this plan had been arranged beforehand, for she knew how the lewd old woman loved to forward love affairs […].1941, W Somerset Maugham, Up at the Villa, Vintage, published 2004, page 26
  2. (transitive) To send (a letter, email etc.) on to a third party.
    • I'll be glad to forward your mail to you while you're gone.
    • One of the most important aspects of the social service operation was the maintaining of a telephone "hot line," supposedly available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week […] This unbelievable achievement was accomplished with the expedient of "call forwarding" which made it possible for all...1981 April 4, Steve Owens, “We Are God's Children Too”, in Gay Community News, page 9
    Synonyms:
    pass on
  3. (transitive) To assemble (a book) by sewing sections, attaching cover boards, and so on.
  4. (Caribbean, intransitive) To arrive, come.

Noun (1)

forward (plural forwards)

  1. One of the eight players (comprising two props, one hooker, two locks, two flankers and one number eight, collectively known as the pack) whose primary task is to gain and maintain possession of the ball (compare back).
  2. A player on a team in football (soccer) in the row nearest to the opposing team's goal, who are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals.
  3. An umbrella term for a centre or winger in ice hockey.
  4. The small forward or power forward position; two frontcourt positions that are taller than guards but shorter than centers.
  5. The front part of a vessel.
  6. (Internet) An e-mail message that is forwarded to another recipient or recipients; an electronic chain letter.
    • When you receive your new pen-pal's email address, do not automatically put it in your address book and use the email Addy to send 'forwards' to. Not every pen pal likes 'forwards', especially jokes and meaningless emails.2004, Tamara Stevens, What Is Snail Mail?: The Lost Art of Letterwriting, page 27
    • This method attaches the files to a new email, which is fine if you want to create a new email. The only problem with this is that it doesn't work if you'd rather send forwards or replies.2009, Joli Ballew, Windows 7 for the Over 50s in Simple Steps
  7. A direct agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a specific point in the future; distinguished from a futures contract in that the latter is standardized and traded on an exchange.

Noun (2)

forward (plural forwards)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) Agreement; covenant.

Proper noun capitalized: Forward

Forward (countable and uncountable, plural Forwards)

  1. A surname.
  2. A hamlet and former village in the Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan, Canada.
  3. A township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
  4. A township in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
  5. An unincorporated community in the town of Perry, Dane County, Wisconsin, taken from the Wisconsin state motto.

Also used as

forward is also the misspelling of foreword.

forward meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

forward in Hindi

at the front
अगला aglā, आगे की ओर āge kī or, अग्रस्थ agrasth
at, near or towards the front of something
आगे āge, सामने sāmne
in the desired or usual direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively; onwards
आगे āge
into the future
भविष्य मे bhaviṣya me

forward in Tamil

முன்னோக்கி

forward in Urdu

at, near or towards the front of something
آگے āge

forward in Telugu

ముందుకు, ముందుకి
More languagesFewer languages
forward in Malayalam
മുന്നിലെ munnile, മുന്നോട്ട് munnōṭṭŭ, മിന്നിൽ minnil
forward in Kannada
ಮುಂದಕ್ಕೆ
forward in Punjabi
ਅੱਗੇ ਵੱਲ
forward in Odia
ଆଗକୁ
forward in Nepali
अगाडि
forward in Arabic
فِي الْمُقَدِّمَة fī l-muqaddima, صَاعِدًا ṣāʕidan, مُهَاجِم muhājim
forward in Indonesian
maju
forward in Persian
جلو jolo, نوک حمله
forward in Vietnamese
đầu, trên, tiếp, gửi tiếp

Examples of forward in a sentence

  • the forward ship in a fleet
  • Don't forget to put the clocks forward by one hour tonight!
  • We need to move this project forward.
  • The most forward bud / Is eaten by the canker ere it blow.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
  • You promiſt Knighthood to our forward ſonne, / Vnſheath your ſword, and dub him preſently.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories...
  • He said that if one offered himself to be a soldier under him, who was forward to tell what he could or would do, if he could only get sight of the enemy, he had but little confidence in him.1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown:

All 40 example sentences with forward

Synonyms of forward

10 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of forward

Forms of forward

Adjective
comparativefurther forward
comparativefarther forward
comparativemore forward
comparativeforwarder
superlativefurthest forward
superlativefarthest forward
superlativemost forward
superlativeforwardmost
superlativeforwardest
alternative form (obsolete)foreward
alternative form (dialectal)forrard
alternative form (dialectal)forrad
alternative form (dialectal)forred
Verb
third-person singular presentforwards
present participleforwarding
past participleforwarded
pastforwarded
Noun
pluralforwards
Proper noun
pluralForwards

Past tense of forward: forwarded

Plural of forward: forwards

Origin of forward

From Middle English foreward, from Old English foreweard (“forward, inclined to the front, fore, early, former”), from Proto-Germanic *fura- (“fore-”), *warþaz (“turned”), equivalent to fore + -ward. Cognate with Dutch voorwaarts (“forward”), German vorwärts (“forward”).

From Middle English foreward, from Old English foreweard (“condition, bargain, agreement, contract, treaty, assurance”), equivalent to fore- + ward (“ward, keeping”). Cognate with Scots forward (“covenant, compact”), Dutch voorwaarde (“condition, terms, proviso, stipulation”). More at fore-, ward.

Words formed from forward

Phrases with forward

78 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about forward

What does forward mean?
Forward means situated toward or at the front of something.
What is forward in Hindi?
Forward in Hindi is अगला (aglā), आगे की ओर (āge kī or), अग्रस्थ (agrasth). See Forward meaning in Hindi.
How do you use forward in a sentence?
the forward ship in a fleet
What part of speech is forward?
Forward can be an adjective, an adverb, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce forward?
Forward is pronounced /ˈfɔːwəd/ (UK).

Words near forward in the dictionary

  1. forwall
  2. forwander
  3. forwandered
  4. forwandering
  5. forwanders
  6. forward
  7. forward and backward
  8. forward assist
  9. forward bias
  10. forward compatibility
  11. forward compatible

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forward (page history and authors); Forward (page history and authors); forward (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); forward (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); forward (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); forward (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); forward (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); forward (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

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

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