FORESHADOWING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foreshadowing mean? 

• FORESHADOWING (noun)
  The noun FORESHADOWING has 1 sense:

1. the act of providing vague advance indications; representing beforehand

  Familiarity information: FORESHADOWING used as a noun is very rare.

• FORESHADOWING (adjective)
  The adjective FORESHADOWING has 1 sense:

1. indistinctly prophetic

  Familiarity information: FORESHADOWING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORESHADOWING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of providing vague advance indications; representing beforehand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

adumbration; foreshadowing; prefiguration

Hypernyms ("foreshadowing" is a kind of...):

anticipation; prediction; prevision (the act of predicting (as by reasoning about the future))

Derivation:

foreshadow (indicate, as with a sign or an omen)

• FORESHADOWING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Indistinctly prophetic

Synonyms:

adumbrative; foreshadowing; prefigurative

Similar:

prophetic; prophetical (foretelling events as if by supernatural intervention)

 Context examples 

And now, indeed, I began to think that in my old association of her with the stained-glass window in the church, a prophetic foreshadowing of what she would be to me, in the calamity that was to happen in the fullness of time, had found a way into my mind.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)