prescience

noun pre·science \ ˈpre-sh(ē-)ən(t)s , ˈprē- , -s(ē-)ən(t)s \

Definition of prescience

:foreknowledge of events:

a :divine omniscience

b :human anticipation of the course of events :foresight

—

prescient

play \-sh(ē-)ənt, -s(ē-)ənt\ adjective

—

presciently

adverb

See prescience defined for English-language learners

See prescience defined for kids

prescience was our Word of the Day on 02/13/2010. Hear the podcast!

Examples of prescience in a Sentence

He predicted their response with amazing prescience.
Her prescience as an investor is impressive.

Recent Examples of prescience from the Web

Let sound political prescience but take the place of an unreasoning prejudice, and this will be done.

— frederick douglass, The Atlantic, "‘A Treacherous President Stood in the Way’," 16 Aug. 2017
With his Neo-like prescience with six-shooters, forged from the metal of Excalibur, the carnage Roland unleashes on droves of unsuspecting baddies is easily the highlight of an otherwise uninspired vomit of action sequences.

— richard white, Popular Mechanics, "'The Dark Tower' Is a Gunslinging Disaster," 8 Aug. 2017
Was that Huxley’s prescience reaching across the veil?

— agatha french, latimes.com, "Reading 'Brave New World' in Aldous Huxley's former home," 3 Aug. 2017
Yet for all its dark prescience, Burn After Reading almost feels too optimistic.

— jeet heer, New Republic, "We Are Living in the Coen Brothers’ Darkest Comedy," 15 July 2017
The phrase ricocheted around the media-sphere, earning Clinton considerable criticism for a paranoia that now looks like prescience.

— sarah ellison, The Hive, "Megyn Kelly, Matt Lauer, and the Battle for the Future of NBC," 19 June 2017
The phrase ricocheted around the media-sphere, earning Clinton considerable criticism for a paranoia that now looks like prescience.

— sarah ellison, The Hive, "Megyn Kelly, Matt Lauer, and the Battle for the Future of NBC," 19 June 2017
The phrase ricocheted around the media-sphere, earning Clinton considerable criticism for a paranoia that now looks like prescience.

— sarah ellison, The Hive, "Megyn Kelly, Matt Lauer, and the Battle for the Future of NBC," 19 June 2017
From Donald Trump's presidency to the development of FaceTime and smartwatches and Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime show performance, the beloved series prescience has been surprisingly on-point over the years.

— raisa bruner, Time, "The Internet Found Definitive Proof That the Simpsons Predicted Every Big Movie," 15 May 2017

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

Did You Know?

If you know the origin of "science," you already know half the story of "prescience." "Science" comes from the Latin verb scire, which means "to know" and which is the source of many English words ("conscience," "conscious," and "omniscience," just to name a few). "Prescience" comes from the Latin verb praescire, which means "to know beforehand." "Praescire" joins the verb "scire" with the prefix prae-, a predecessor of "pre-." A lesser-known "scire"-derived word is "nescience." Nescience means "ignorance" and comes from "scire" plus "ne-," which means "not" in Latin.

Origin and Etymology of prescience

Middle English, from Late Latin praescientia, from Latin praescient-, praesciens, present participle of praescire to know beforehand, from prae- + scire to know — more at science

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

See Words from the same year