Meaning & use
foreseeable consequence
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Meanings
nouncountableformallegallaw
a result that a reasonable person could have expected or predicted before it happened.
Grammar: Countable; often used in the plural: the foreseeable consequences of an action.
Patterns
- a foreseeable consequence of something
- the foreseeable consequences of something
The judge said the injury was a foreseeable consequence of the company's negligence.
Climate change is a foreseeable consequence of burning too many fossil fuels.
Before signing the contract, they discussed every foreseeable consequence.
nouncountablelegallawspecialist
in law, a result that is close enough to a breach of duty that the person responsible can be held liable for it.
Grammar: A technical legal sense; usually singular or plural in court judgments.
Patterns
- a foreseeable consequence of the breach
- liable for foreseeable consequences
The court found that the loss was a foreseeable consequence of the breach of contract.
Lawyers argued about whether the damage was a foreseeable consequence at the time.
Word forms
| plural | foreseeable consequences |
|---|
Common combinations
- a foreseeable consequence of
- The accident was a foreseeable consequence of ignoring safety rules.
- reasonably foreseeable consequence
- The damage was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the delay.
- foreseeable consequences for
- There will be foreseeable consequences for breaking the agreement.
- consider the foreseeable consequences
- Good leaders consider the foreseeable consequences before making a decision.
Synonyms and how they differ
- predictable result
- More everyday and less legal; it simply means a result you can guess in advance.
- expected outcome
- Focuses on what people think will happen, not on what could have been predicted in a legal sense.
Opposites
Word family
- foreseeable adjective
- able to be predicted or expected
- foresee verb
- to know or expect something before it happens
- consequence noun
- a result or effect of an action
Commonly confused: foreseeable consequence or unforeseeable consequence?
foreseeable consequence vs unforeseeable consequence
This is the opposite: a result that could not have been predicted. Do not drop the 'un-' if you mean it was predictable.
Practice
Choose the best completion: 'The flooding was a foreseeable consequence ___ building on the floodplain.'
Choose one answer.
The standard pattern is 'a consequence of something', so 'of' is correct. 'For' can appear in 'consequences for someone', but not when naming the cause.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “foreseeable consequence”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.