foreknowledge

fore·knowl·edge

(fôr-nŏl′ĭj, fôr′nŏl′-)

Knowledge or awareness of something before its existence or occurrence; prescience.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fore•knowl•edge

(ˈfɔrˌnɒl ɪdʒ, ˈfoʊr-, fɔrˈnɒl ɪdʒ, foʊr-)

n.

knowledge of something before it exists or happens; prescience.

[1525–35]

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Noun

foreknowledge - knowledge of an event before it occurs

precognition

clairvoyance, E.S.P., ESP, extrasensory perception, second sight - apparent power to perceive things that are not present to the senses

foreknowledge

noun

1. prior knowledge, advance knowledge, previous understanding The General had foreknowledge of the plot.

2. precognition, foresight, forewarning, clairvoyance, prescience, prevision the key to the mystery of foreknowledge

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

prescience

prescienza previsione

foreknowledge

[ˈfɔːˈnɒlɪdʒ] N → presciencia f, conocimiento m previo
to have foreknowledge of sth → saber algo de antemano

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

foreknowledge

[fɔː^rˈnɒlɪdʒ] n
to have foreknowledge of sth → savoir qch à l'avance

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

foreknowledge

n → vorherige Kenntnis

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

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Did some strange gleam of foreknowledge fall for a moment across her mirth-making?

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Probably he had that much foreknowledge, knowing his men.

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Sir Nathaniel, as an old diplomatist, had a way of understanding, as if by foreknowledge, the true inwardness of things, and asked suddenly, but in a matter-of-fact, indifferent voice:

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In discourse more sweet (For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense,) Others apart sat on a Hill retir'd, In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, And found no end, in wandring mazes lost.

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A minute or two later he was paddling toward the shore to be swallowed up in the darkness of the jungle night, and the terrors of a hideous existence from which, could he have had even a slight foreknowledge of what awaited him in the long years to come, he would have fled to the certain death of the open sea rather than endure it.

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This he took in good part, and was really pleased, nodding his head with direful foreknowledge and mystery, until George Leach, the erstwhile cabin- boy, ventured some rough pleasantry on the subject.

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At any rate, the overheard matter seemed to imply her foreknowledge of that event, and I think she was wise in not waiting for the investigation of such a charge.

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Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country.

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Often she had seemed to herself to be moving among them, an invisible ghost among the living, better acquainted with them than with her own friends, because she knew their secrets and possessed a divine foreknowledge of their destiny.

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These cellar dents, like deserted fox burrows, old holes, are all that is left where once were the stir and bustle of human life, and "fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute," in some form and dialect or other were by turns discussed.

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JOCASTA Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance, With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?