forethought.

Careful thought about future needs or consequences before acting.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• show forethought
• with forethought

On the page

A little forethought would have prevented the shortage.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. 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: analysis, description. Commonness: moderately common.