Meaning & use
foreshadowing
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Meanings
noununcountable
A hint or sign placed early in a story that prepares the reader for something that will happen later.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: there is a lot of foreshadowing in the first chapter.
Patterns
- foreshadowing of something
The storm in chapter one is foreshadowing of the tragedy to come.
Good foreshadowing makes the ending feel earned rather than sudden.
Her English class discussed foreshadowing in the short story.
nouncountable or uncountable
An early sign in real life that suggests what will happen later.
Grammar: Also used with a: a foreshadowing of the crisis.
Patterns
- a foreshadowing of something
The early layoffs were a foreshadowing of the company's collapse.
Looking back, the quarrel seemed a foreshadowing of the split.
Scientists see the warm spring as a foreshadowing of hotter summers.
Common combinations
- subtle foreshadowing
- The film uses subtle foreshadowing in its opening scene.
- heavy-handed foreshadowing
- Critics found the foreshadowing heavy-handed.
- use foreshadowing
- Mystery writers use foreshadowing to plant clues.
- a hint of foreshadowing
- There was a hint of foreshadowing in his remark.
- foreshadowing of events
- The poem is a foreshadowing of events to come.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hint
- Hint is a general word for any slight sign, while foreshadowing refers to a deliberate planted clue in a story or an advance sign of an event.
- omen
- An omen is a sign of good or bad luck, usually supernatural, whereas foreshadowing is a storytelling device.
- premonition
- A premonition is a feeling someone has about the future, not a clue in a narrative.
- harbinger
- A harbinger announces something coming, as the first robin signals spring, but it is a thing or person rather than a technique.
Word family
- foreshadow verb
- to hint at something to come
- foreshadowed adjective
- hinted at in advance
- shadow noun
- a dark shape caused by blocked light
Commonly confused: foreshadowing or foreboding?
foreshadowing vs foreboding
Foreboding is a feeling that something bad will happen. Foreshadowing is the hint itself, usually in a story.
Practice
In a novel, a character finds a cracked mirror in chapter one, and later suffers a series of misfortunes. This is an example of ____.
Choose one answer.
Foreshadowing is an early clue about later events. A flashback goes back in time, and irony and exaggeration do not describe planting an early hint.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “foreshadowing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.