Meaning & use
forethought
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Meaning
noununcountable
The act of thinking carefully about what might happen in the future and planning for it before you act.
Grammar: Uncountable; used with verbs like show, need, or have, and in the phrase with forethought.
Patterns
- show forethought
- with forethought
- need forethought
- have the forethought to do something
She showed great forethought by booking the tickets months in advance.
With a little forethought, we could have avoided this whole problem.
He had the forethought to bring an umbrella, so we stayed dry.
Common combinations
- show forethought
- The organizers showed forethought by arranging backup transport.
- with forethought
- With forethought, she saved money for emergencies.
- lack of forethought
- His lack of forethought meant we ran out of supplies.
- a bit of forethought
- A bit of forethought would have saved us hours.
- have the forethought to do something
- Luckily, she had the forethought to check the weather.
Synonyms and how they differ
- foresight
- Foresight is the ability to see what may happen and prepare; it is often a natural quality, while forethought stresses the deliberate thinking you do.
- planning
- Planning is the general activity of making plans; forethought is more about thinking ahead to avoid problems.
- precaution
- A precaution is a specific action taken to prevent something bad; forethought is the thinking that leads to such actions.
Opposites
Word family
- forethoughtful adjective
- Showing careful thought about the future; less common than the noun.
Commonly confused: forethought or afterthought?
forethought vs afterthought
An afterthought is something added later, not planned; forethought is planning before.
Practice
She had the ______ to pack snacks for the long journey.
Choose one answer.
Forethought fits because it means thinking ahead and planning. 'Afterthought' is the opposite (something added later), 'hindsight' is understanding after an event, and 'foresight' is the ability to predict, not the specific act of planning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “forethought”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.