Dictionary

prescient en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɹɛʃ(i)ənt/ (General-American)
• audio
• /ˈpɹɛsiənt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈpɹiːʃiənt/ (Received-Pronunciation, dated)
• /ˈpɹɛsiənt/ (US, rare)
• (Received-Pronunciation) audio
• /ˈpɹiːʃ(i)ənt/ (General-American)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin praesciēns (“foreknowing; foretelling, predicting”), present participle of) Latin praesciō (“to foreknow”), from prae- (prefix meaning ‘before; in front’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- (“before; in front”)) + sciō (“to know, understand; to have knowledge of”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect; to split”)). The word is cognate with Middle French prescient (modern French prescient (“prescient”)), Italian presciente (“prescient”). By surface analysis, pre- (“earlier in time, beforehand”) + scient (“knowing, aware”).

Meanings

1. Exhibiting or possessing prescience: having knowledge of, or seemingly able to correctly predict, events before they take place.
   • Members opposite seem to be prescient; they seem to know what I am going to say before I have said it. 1960 August 24, Roy Emile Jack, “Business of the House—Urgency”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Fourth Session, Thirty-second Parliament: House of Representatives, volume 323, Wellington: R. E. Owen, government printer, →OCLC, page 1740:
   • Mean time the king, aſtoniſh'd at the ſign, / Haſtes to conſult his præſcient ſire divine. 1753, Virgil, “Virgil’s Æneid. The Seventh Book.”, in Christopher Pitt, transl., edited by [Joseph Warton], The Works of Virgil, in Latin and English. […], volume III, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 283, lines 103–104:
   • The 2017 report […] discussed the possibility of a pandemic plunging the world into economic chaos. While it forecast that a pandemic would begin in 2023, as opposed to 2020, its warnings about travel restrictions, economic distress and isolation were prescient. 2025 September 26, Julian E. Barnes, Helene Cooper, “Gabbard Ends Intelligence Report on Future Threats to U.S.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • [Neil] Warnock described City as the best team in Europe in the build-up to this match and joked that his players had been preparing for the game – and City's inevitable dominance – by training without a ball. It proved to be a prescient quip, as the home side had to toil for long periods, struggling to lay a glove on their stylish opponents. 2018 January 28, Dafydd Pritchard, “Cardiff City 1 – 1 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2018:
   • It seems that human nature, when its original habits are cultivated and attended to, possesses something upon the same occasion of that prescient foreboding, which announces the approaching tempest to the inferior ranks of creation. 1830 November – 1831 November (date written), Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Tales of My Landlord, Fourth and Last Series. […], volume II (Count Robert of Paris), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Company] for Robert Cadell; London: Whittaker and Co., published 1 December 1831 (indicated as 1832), →OCLC, pages 310–311:
   • The kind sorrowful blue eyes looked at me for a moment with the prescient sadness of a coming and a long farewell. 1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “The Narrative of Walter Hartright, of Clement’s Inn, London”, in The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1860, →OCLC, part I, section IX, page 29, column 2:
   • And if the præſcient Muſes guide my Lay, / Or, future Secrets, Phœbus can diſplay, / The Day ſhall ſhine diſtinguiſh'd from the reſt, / That Anna dignify'd, and Hymen bleſt; […] 1733–1734, Stephen Duck, A Poem on the Marriage of His Serene Highness the Prince of Orange with Ann Princess-royal of Great Britain. […], London: Printed for Weaver Bickerton […], →OCLC, page 7:
   • Benignant Heaven, præscient and kind, / Made man for toil, and left sweet Sleep behind, / To nerve the arm which labour had unstrung— […] [1812], William Grisenthwaite, Sleep, a Poem in Two Books, with Other Miscellaneous Poems, […], Lynn: Printed for the author, by W. G. Whittingham, and sold by R. Baldwin, […], →OCLC, book I, page 5, lines 77–79:

Forms

Antonyms

unforeseeing

Coordinates

omniscient

Deriveds

presciently · unprescient

Relateds

prescience · prescious · prescientific

Synonyms

prevoyant · prescious · clairvoyant · prescientific · foreseeing · foreknowing

Translations (23)

la praescius (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · fr prescient (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · it presciente (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · ru дальновидный (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · sv förutseende (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · de vorausschauend (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · nb forutseende (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · fi laajanäköinen (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · cmn 預知的 /预知的 (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · pt presciente (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · uk пророчий (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · ca prescient (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · bg предвидлив (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · grc προγνωστικός (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · es presciente (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · hi दूरदर्शी (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · de vorausahnend (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · sv framsynt (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · de hellsichtig (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · de vorherwissend (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · cs jasnozřivý (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · bg далновиден (exhibiting or possessing prescience) · uk передбачливий (exhibiting or possessing prescience)