future

Syllables: fu·tureUK/ˈfjuː.t͡ʃəː//ˈfju.t͡ʃɚ/

future noun: the time ahead; those moments yet to be experienced. Also the alternative form of futures.

Noun

future (countable and uncountable, plural futures)

The time ahead; those moments yet to be experienced.
- This solitary attitude stems in part from a deep sense of fatalism and futility, a profound social effect of the genophage that caused krogan numbers to dwindle to a relative handful. Not only are they angry that the entire galaxy seems out to get them, the krogan are also generally pessimistic...2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Krogan: Culture Codex entry
Synonyms:

to-come
Something that will happen in moments yet to come.
Goodness in what is yet to come. Something to look forward to.
- There is no future in dwelling on the past.
- Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching...2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
The likely prospects for or fate of someone or something in time to come.
- Again, it's unlikely they will return to traffic, but futures have been secured for four that will be heading to heritage railways [...].2020 May 20, John Crosse, “Soon to be gone... but never forgotten”, in Rail, page 63
Verb tense used to talk about events that will happen in the future; future tense.
An object that retrieves the value of a promise.
A minor-league prospect.

Adjective

future (not comparable)

Having to do with or occurring in the future.
- Future generations will either laugh or cry at our stupidity.
- So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

unborn, coming, hereafter, toward

Also used as

future is also the alternative form of futures.

future meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

future in Hindi

the time ahead: भविष्य bhaviṣya, भविष्यकाल bhaviṣyakāl, मुस्तकबिल mustakbil, मुस्तक़बिल mustaqbil, आइंदा āindā
something that will happen in moments yet to come: भविष्य bhaviṣya
having to do with or occurring in the future: भविष्य bhaviṣya

future in Tamil

the time ahead: எதிர்காலம் etirkālam, வருங்காலம் varuṅkālam

future in Urdu

the time ahead: مُسْتَقْبِل mustaqbil, آئِنْدَہ āinda

More languagesFewer languages

future in Bengali: আয়েন্দা aẏenda, ভবিষ্যৎ bhobiśśot
future in Telugu: భవిష్యత్తు bhaviṣyattu, భవిష్య bhaviṣya, భావి bhāvi
future in Malayalam: ഭാവി
future in Kannada: ಭವಿಷ್ಯತ್ಕಾಲ bhaviṣyatkāla
future in Punjabi: ਭਵਿੱਖ
future in Gujarati: ભવિષ્યકાળ bhaviṣyakāḷ
future in Odia: ଭବିଷ୍ୟତ bhabiṣyata
future in Sanskrit: भविष्य bhaviṣya
future in Sinhala: ඉදිරිය idiriya
future in Assamese: ভবিষ্যৎ bhobiissot
future in Nepali: भविष्य
future in Pashto: آينده āyendá, مستقبل mostaqbál, استقبال esteqbāl, ګانده gānda
future in Tagalog: hinaharap, kinabukasan
future in Arabic: مُسْتَقْبَل mustaqbal, مُسْتَقْبَلِيّ mustaqbaliyy
future in Malay: masa depan, masa hadapan
future in Indonesian: masa depan
future in Thai: อนาคต à-naa-kót
future in Vietnamese: tương lai
future in Myanmar: အနာဂတ် a.nagat

Examples of future in a sentence

The surviving krogan see no point to building for the future; there will be no future.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Krogan: Culture Codex entry:
It[The study] also attempts to predict the future progression of AI as it relates to new inventions.2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2019:

All 40 example sentences with future

Synonyms of future

Antonyms

past
present

All synonyms and antonyms of future

Forms of future

plural	futures

Plural of future: futures

Origin of future

From Middle English future, futur, from Old French futur, from Latin futūrus, irregular future active participle of sum (“to be”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, be”). Cognate with Old English bēo (“to become, will be; to be”). More at be. Doublet of futur. Displaced native Old English tōweard, which took on a different meaning as toward, and Middle English afterhede (“future”, literally “afterhood”) in the given sense.

Words formed from future

Phrases with future

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with future

suture

Questions about future

What does future mean?: Future means the time ahead; those moments yet to be experienced.
What is future in Hindi?: Future in Hindi is भविष्य (bhaviṣya), भविष्यकाल (bhaviṣyakāl), मुस्तकबिल (mustakbil). See Future meaning in Hindi.
How do you use future in a sentence?: The surviving krogan see no point to building for the future; there will be no future.
What part of speech is future?: Future can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce future?: Future is pronounced /ˈfjuː.t͡ʃəː/ (UK).
What is the plural of future?: The plural of future is futures.

Words near future in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: future (page history and authors); future (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); future (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); future (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: 2026-09-02

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

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