foresee

verb fore·see \ fȯr-ˈsē \

foresaw play \fȯr-ˈsȯ\; foreseen play \fȯr-ˈsēn\; foreseeing

transitive verb

: to see (something, such as a development) beforehand

He could not have foreseen the consequences of his actions.

She foresaw the company's potential and invested early on.

—

foreseer

play \fȯr-ˈsē-ər, -ˈsir\ noun

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Examples of foresee in a Sentence

We couldn't have foreseen the consequences of our actions.
He foresees a day when all war will cease.
She foresaw the company's potential and invested early on.

Recent Examples of foresee from the Web

There was no way to foresee the havoc of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate.

— mark walker, WSJ, "Congress Should Help Hurricane Victims—but Pay for It, Too," 11 Oct. 2017
But computer visionaries foresee the day when not just humans but all our devices are connected to each other via the Internet.

— NBC News, "How the 'Internet of Things' Will Change Everything," 29 Sep. 2017
But even more notable — and downright fascinating — is that Kid Rock, Eminem and ICP find themselves in the thick of the 2017 political conversation, relevant and newsy in ways few would have foreseen in 1997.

— brian mccollum, Detroit Free Press, "20 years in, Kid Rock, Eminem and ICP are politically relevant — and culturally divided," 16 Sep. 2017
The home’s failure to foresee the catastrophic consequences of an air conditioning meltdown — and Broward County’s failure to insist that the home do so — point to a serious statewide problem.

— carol marbin miller and elizabeth koh, miamiherald, "Nursing home where 8 died had emergency plan with cut-and-paste passages, no mention of air conditioning," 16 Sep. 2017
After all, investors failed to foresee either the result of the Brexit referendum in Britain or the election of President Donald Trump.

— The Economist, "Why are investors so relaxed about the tensions in Korea?," 7 Sep. 2017
Maybe Giroux also foresaw Couturier’s breakthrough season.

— sam carchidi, Philly.com, "Sean Couturier: Stunning transformation making Flyers' coach Dave Hakstol look like a genius," 3 Nov. 2017
That concerned several commissioners, who said one of the benefits long foreseen with a streetcar system would be access to the airport.

— larry barszewski, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Broward considers another attempt to raise sales tax for transportation," 31 Oct. 2017
In the early 1830s, Tocqueville had already foreseen the emergence of this new middle-class anxiety and described it in Democracy in America.

— joshua mitchell, National Review, "The Identity-Politics Death Grip," 26 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'foresee.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of foresee

before 12th century

foresee Synonyms

Synonyms

anticipate, divine, foreknow, prevision;

envisage, envision, foreshadow, prefigure, visualize;

alert, caution, foretoken, forewarn;

preview;

descry, discern, perceive;

apprehend, dread, fear;

Synonym Discussion of foresee

foresee, foreknow, divine, anticipate mean to know beforehand. foresee implies nothing about how the knowledge is derived and may apply to ordinary reasoning and experience.