To provide an earlier indication or suggestion of a later event or development.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- foreshadow an event
- foreshadow a change
On the page
The repeated interruption foreshadowed the conflict that emerged in the final scene.
The early procedural change foreshadowed a broader shift that the participants had not yet recognized.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- foreshadow
- Past tense
- foreshadowed
- Past participle
- foreshadowed
- Present participle
- foreshadowing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- foreshadow
- Present continuous
- am/is/are foreshadowing
- Present perfect
- have/has foreshadowed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been foreshadowing
- Past
- foreshadowed
- Past continuous
- was/were foreshadowing
- Past perfect
- had foreshadowed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been foreshadowing
- Future
- will foreshadow
- Future continuous
- will be foreshadowing
- Future perfect
- will have foreshadowed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been foreshadowing
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: foreshadow; foreshadows; foreshadowed; foreshadowed; foreshadowing 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: foreshadows.
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