Dictionary

futurity en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /fjuːˈtjʊəɹɪti/
• /fjuːˈt͡ʃʊəɹɪti/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English future Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Latin -itāsder. Old French -itebor. Middle English -ite English -ity English futurity From future + -ity.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The future.
   • Now instead of reversing the levers I had pulled them over so as to go forward with them, and when I came to look at these indicators I found that the thousands hand was sweeping round as fast as the seconds hand of a watch, into futurity. 1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XIII, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:
   • Charles's was just an exciting consciousness; and he paced the streets, sometimes roused into disdain of the busy and thoughtless crowd around, but oftener lost in gloomy dreams of that futurity whose depths he was so soon to explore. [1832], L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Talisman”, in Heath’s Book of Beauty. M.DCCC.XXXIII. […], London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, […] [for Charles Heath], →OCLC, page 66:
2. (countable, uncountable) The state of being in the future.
   • [I]ts meaning is often tentative and fluctuates, but most often it indicates a level of uncertainty or doubt regarding futurity (”likely but not certain“)[.] 2022, Daisy Neijman, Icelandic: An Essential Grammar, Routledge, page 73:
3. (countable, uncountable) A future event.
   • [A] Scepticiſm, that's the only vvay to Science. But yet this is ſo difficult in the impartial and exact performance, that it may be vvell reckon'd among the bare Poſsibilities, vvhich never commence into a Futurity: It requiring ſuch a free, ſedate, and intent minde, as it may be no vvhere found but among the Platonical Idea's. 1661, Joseph Glanvill, “A Third Reason of Our Ignorance and Error, viz. the Impostures and Deceits of Our Senses. […]”, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 74:
   • [O]n this perhaps, / This peradventure, infamous for lies, / As on a rock of adamant, we build / Our mountain hopes; spin out eternal schemes, / As we the fatal sisters could out-spin, / And, big with life's futurities, expire. 1742, [Edward Young], “Night the First”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC:
4. (countable, uncountable) A race for two-year-old horses, nominated to run when still foals.

Forms

Deriveds

futuritial

Synonyms

futurity · aftertime · to-be · to-be · futurition · future · to-come · maybe · aftertime · hereafter