To consider or imagine a possible situation, development or arrangement.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- envisage a future
- envisage a difficulty
On the page
The plan envisaged a future in which the two institutions shared the same resources.
The author envisaged a difficulty that the optimistic summary had omitted.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- envisage
- Past tense
- envisaged
- Past participle
- envisaged
- Present participle
- envisaging
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- envisage
- Present continuous
- am/is/are envisaging
- Present perfect
- have/has envisaged
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been envisaging
- Past
- envisaged
- Past continuous
- was/were envisaging
- Past perfect
- had envisaged
- Past perfect continuous
- had been envisaging
- Future
- will envisage
- Future continuous
- will be envisaging
- Future perfect
- will have envisaged
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been envisaging
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: envisage; envisages; envisaged; envisaged; envisaging Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: narrative transformation, conception and possibility, memory representation, anticipatory detail. Disciplines: literary writing, advanced general English, narrative analysis. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: envisages.
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