foreshadowing

noun

fore·shad·ow·ing fȯr-ˈsha-də-wiŋ

plural foreshadowings

Synonyms of foreshadowing next

: an indication of what is to come

If the history of the world were a novel, the events so strikingly chronicled in the photographs in this book … would seem a foreshadowing of the recent events …—

Ralph Novak

On this merry Christmas evening, however, no fears or dim foreshadowings of any coming event clouded our hearts or faces.—

Lucy Maud Montgomery

also : the use of such indications (as in a work of literature)

And, further, Rose is a genuine cliff-hanger, or page-turner, full of foreshadowing … and all the tried and tricky methods of creating suspense. —

John Simon

Examples of foreshadowing in a Sentence

the hero's strange encounter with a grave digger is often seen as a foreshadowing of his own death

Recent Examples on the Web

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And because every number is loaded with callbacks and foreshadowings, both musically and lyrically, the rangy story is tied into a very tight thematic bundle. —

Jesse Green, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2024 Dillon had returned from a five-week COVID-19 absence not long prior, and that breakout game appeared to be a foreshadowing of dominant performances to come. —

Matt Schneidman, The Athletic, 5 Aug. 2024 The thought of our freedom to get outside and mingle being suppressed has a foreshadowing of doom that has smothered the enchantment of snow days. —

Sherry Kuehl, Kansas City Star, 22 Jan. 2025 This was a fair description of some elements in the Antall government—and a prescient foreshadowing of the populist style that Orban himself would later adopt. —

Paul Lendvai, Foreign Affairs, 12 Aug. 2019 See all Example Sentences for foreshadowing