Word.ws English Dictionary

heaven forfend

Syllables: heav·en for·fendUK/ˌhɛvn̩ fɔːˈfɛnd//ˌhɛv(ə)n fɔɹˈfɛnd/

heaven forfend interjection: used to express that one hopes that something does not happen.

Interjection

  1. (dated, humorous) Used to express that one hopes that something does not happen
    • Advisor: The voters now see you as imperial and god-like. Burns: Hot dog! Advisor: But there's a down-side to it. The latest polls indicate you're in danger of losing touch with the common man. Burns: Oh, dear! Heaven forfend!1990, Sam Simon, John Swartzwelder, “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish”, in The Simpsons
    • Now there's an opportunity to employ a man who, heaven forfend, actually thinks about tactics and team balance.2007 November 23, Scott Murray, “Why England’s failure is good news for, er, England”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...
    Antonyms:
    God willing

Synonyms of heaven forfend

Antonyms

Origin of heaven forfend

From heaven (“abode of God”) + forfend (“to avert; to forbid, prohibit”).

Words that rhyme with heaven forfend

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about heaven forfend

What does heaven forfend mean?
Heaven forfend means used to express that one hopes that something does not happen.
What part of speech is heaven forfend?
Heaven forfend is an interjection.
How do you pronounce heaven forfend?
Heaven forfend is pronounced /ˌhɛvn̩ fɔːˈfɛnd/ (UK).

Words near heaven forfend in the dictionary

  1. heaved to
  2. heavedst
  3. heaveless
  4. heaven
  5. heaven forbid
  6. heaven forfend
  7. heaven help someone
  8. heaven helps those that help themselves
  9. heaven helps those who help themselves
  10. heaven knows
  11. Heaven Lake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heaven forfend (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-heaven forfend.oga.

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