foreshadowing

noun

fore·​shad·​ow·​ing fȯr-ˈsha-də-wiŋ 

plural foreshadowings

: 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

Synonyms

• augury
• auspice
• boding
• foreboding
• omen
• portent
• prefiguring
• presage

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

But there’s also a bit of distracting stunt casting in the form of Kurt Russell as a corrupt mogul named Dob McCoy, who has a special ability to turn locals against each other and ruin their crops, his castor farm an ominous foreshadowing of hell-bent poisonings to come. —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 11 Mar. 2025

And some, with a bleak foreshadowing of what was to come, had written their names and the phone numbers of family members – on their chests. —Kate Bartlett, NPR, 18 Jan. 2025

Some epileptic patients, for example, can feel their seizures coming on and activate their implants, but others don’t experience such foreshadowing. —IEEE Spectrum, 29 May 2015

Like the compulsive twisting of a pencil into a sharpener, Khatami tightens the narrative rope to excruciating effect with a series of ominous foreshadowings. —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 25 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1587, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for foreshadowing

• overshadowing
• shadowing