as in to herald
to give a slight indication of beforehand
the moral decay that traditionally foreruns the decline of a mighty empire
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for forerun
Verb
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The lead hovered around that level for the remainder of the contest before the final horn heralded the Gophers’ 20th victory of the season.—
Staff Report,
Twin Cities,
16 Feb. 2026 -
The alien protector of Metropolis (and, by extension, America), played with indelible charm and gravitas by Christopher Reeve, is heralded by a brass, four-note riff as simple and bold as his tricolor spandex.—
Alex Galbraith,
Entertainment Weekly,
15 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Just a few months later in the Western Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Dallas Stars foreshadowed what one Olympic team could look like.—
Lia Assimakopoulos
Dallas Stars,
Dallas Morning News,
11 Feb. 2026
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Although violence has often foreshadowed elections in Bangladesh, analysts say this vote is widely seen as especially volatile.—
Mayu Saini,
Sourcing Journal,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Longitudinal studies across diverse populations will be needed to assess whether shifts in the oral microbiome can predict future weight gain, insulin resistance, or cardiometabolic decline, and perhaps most excitingly, whether modifying one's oral ecosystem alters systemic metabolic markers.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
14 Feb. 2026
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Huntington predicted that a new conflict would rage after the demise of Communism.—
Josef Joffe,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Traditionally, programming a robot implied writing thousands of lines of code to define every movement.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
16 Feb. 2026
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Words like bankrupt and default imply some sort of sudden collapse.—
Steve Booren,
Denver Post,
15 Feb. 2026
Verb
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That unfurled into the most fundamental reason the wide world of sports will be descending on Kansas City this June and July, with 650,000-plus visitors anticipated even before the base camp announcements.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
15 Feb. 2026
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Yet even with this long history of violence, neither those who watched from afar nor those who took to the streets anticipated repression on this scale.—
Pegah Banihashemi,
Chicago Tribune,
15 Feb. 2026
Verb
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In between, works by contemporaries complicate superficial ideas about his meteoric genius, and small, delicate drawings teem with an abundance of ideas — paintings never made, thoughts adumbrated then abandoned.—
Philip Kennicott,
Washington Post,
18 Oct. 2019
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Nothing in America’s tepid 19th-century contributions to European classical music adumbrated it; nor did the homely and sometimes hokey popular songs of Stephen Foster.—
Heather Mac Donald,
National Review,
22 Aug. 2019
Verb
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Military action in Venezuela today without allies may prefigure action tomorrow against allies—for example, to invade and annex Greenland.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
3 Jan. 2026
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Chess by telegraph also prefigured chess played through other means of telecommunications.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
11 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Forerun.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/forerun. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
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