forehear

F4O1R1E1H4E1A1R1

verb

To hear beforehand.

Scrabble 14

Meanings

verbforehear (third-person singular simple present forehears, present participle forehearing, simple past and past participle foreheard)

present singular third person forehears · participle present forehearing · participle past foreheard · past foreheard

  1. intransitivetransitiveTo hear beforehand.

    In that flash of time as his fingers had touched the handle of the table-spoon, he had foreseen John's wild rush to the doors, he had foreheard John's agitated cry of "Thieves! Police! Burglars!"

    1905, Margaret Westrup, “Billy's Long Day”, in The Idler, volume 26, page 604
    2 more examples

    […] mingled into one beautiful and continuous peal of that earthly harmony which Heaven has given us as a forehearing of those sublimer harmonies that, in its everlasting bowers, take the imprisoned soul, "and lap it in elysium."

    1837 January 28, “The Pleasures of Winter”, in The Spirit and Manners of the Age, volume 3

    Holiday labor at the island today: being his guest is a hazardous responsibility: I foresee a swell and forelean to a spumy pitch and forehear the scuff of a badly perched sack of cement as it slips into the racing bay, and my New York imagination […]

    2014, Joseph McElroy, Ancient History: A Paraphrase

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*pr̥h₂éy
  4. Proto-Germanic*furai
  5. Proto-Germanic*furai-
  6. Proto-West Germanic*forē-
  7. Old Englishfore-
  8. Middle Englishfore-
  9. Englishfore-
  10. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eḱ-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ew-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ṓws
  13. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ḱh₂owsyéti
  14. Proto-Germanic*hauzijaną
  15. Proto-West Germanic*hauʀijan
  16. Old Englishhīeran
  17. Middle Englishheren
  18. Englishhear
  19. Englishforehear

From fore- + hear.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

forehear. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forehear

MLA

“forehear.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forehear. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forehear,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forehear.

Source: forehear on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.