foretel

F4O1R1E1T1E1L1

A form of foretell — To predict; to tell (the future) before it occurs; to prophesy.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

verbforetel (third-person singular simple present foretels, present participle foretelling, simple past and past participle foretold)

present singular third person foretels · participle present foretelling · participle past foretold · past foretold

  1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of foretell.

    This wonderful phænomenon has, ſince it was firſt diſcovered, employed the thoughts of very able philoſophers ; many hypotheſes having been offered, not only for its explanation, but even to foretel the future variations in various parts of the world.

    November 16, 1786, Tiberius Cavallo, Magnetical Experiments and Obſervations, page #22
    2 more examples

    And yet by the way, as one sometime demanded of one of his complices, How it came to pass, that they, who take upon them by the Stars, to tel everie draggle-tail’d Girl that comes to them to enquire after a Silver Spoon lost, what was become of it, and which way it was gone; yet could not by their star-skil foresee and foretel the Scotch Kings defeat at Worcester […]

    1654, Thomas Gataker, A Discours Apologetical, London: Thomas Newberry, page 4

    “I hope not that.—It is not likely. No, Mr. Knightley, do not foretel vexation from that quarter.” “Not I, indeed. I only name possibilities. I do not pretend to Emma’s genius for foretelling and guessing. I hope, with all my heart, the young man may be a Weston in merit, and a Churchill in fortune.—[…]”

    1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 75
Cite this entry
APA

foretel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foretel

MLA

“foretel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foretel. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “foretel,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foretel.

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