Word.ws English Dictionary

the shape of things to come

the shape of things to come phrase: that is trendsetting and foreshadowing; pointing the way ahead.

Phrase

the shape of things to come

  1. That is trendsetting and foreshadowing; pointing the way ahead.
    • The Rohingya crisis is not an isolated tragedy – it’s the shape of things to come [title]2015 May 19, Tahmima Anam, “The Rohingya crisis is not an isolated tragedy – it’s the shape of things to come”, in The Guardian
    • Few appreciated it at the time but with 40 years’ hindsight, Steven Lisberger’s sci-fi adventure Tron was the shape of things to come: in cinema, in real life, and in virtual life.2022 July 5, Steve Rose, “‘Frankly it blew my mind’: how Tron changed cinema – and predicted the future of tech”, in The Guardian

Origin of the shape of things to come

From the novel The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells (1933).

Questions about the shape of things to come

What does the shape of things to come mean?
The shape of things to come means that is trendsetting and foreshadowing; pointing the way ahead.
What part of speech is the shape of things to come?
The shape of things to come is a phrase.

Words near the shape of things to come in the dictionary

  1. The Scum
  2. The Sea
  3. the second mouse gets the cheese
  4. The Settlement
  5. the seven bells
  6. the shape of things to come
  7. the shirt off one's back
  8. the shit
  9. the shit out of
  10. the shits
  11. the shoe is on the other foot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the shape of things to come (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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