prescience

3 9.9

To know what will happen in the future

noun
/ˈprɛsɪəns/

Formal

: presciencia

Nonetheless, the play's multiple revivals in the 1920s and publication in 1930 indicate its stylistic and thematic prescience.
a remarkable prescience

I didn't have a huge amount of prescience at the time, but I also remember thinking, I'm paying a lot of attention, as many citizens can't.

Examples

With the advantage of hindsight, we can note their amazing prescience as well as their naive miscalculations.

Academic text (2004)
If anyone writing in 1944 should have been capable of accurate prescience about the future of rockets, it was Willy Ley.

Academic text (2004)
Prescience is required for central planning of science as much as for the economy.

Academic text (1992)
In many areas of scientific advancement, prescience is not difficult.

Academic text (2004)
Meet the Press gave further proof of Obama's prescience.

Academic text (2012)
A National Park Service ranger confirmed their intuition but was stunned by the students' prescience.

Academic text (2004)
Her remarkable prescience allowed her to foresee the market crash before it happened.
The scientist's prescience in predicting climate change trends has shaped environmental policy.
With his prescience, the author wrote about technology that would emerge decades later.

Synonyms

foresight

vsprescience

30 5.6

The ability to think ahead and plan for the future

emphasizes knowing or predicting more than planning or preparation

foreknowledge

vsprescience

7 8.9

Being aware of something before it happens

is the ability to know or predict rather than the knowledge itself

precognition

vsprescience

4 9.9

To know about a future event before it happens, often as a dream or feeling

is a general predictive ability without implying paranormal cause

farsightedness

vsprescience

1 7.1

Ability to think ahead and plan for future problems

is the power to know or predict rather than early preparation

foresightedness

vsprescience

1 7.5

Thinking ahead and preparing for future needs or problems

is about the ability to know or predict rather than prudence

prospicience

vsprescience

Archaic

9.9

An ability to see and plan for things that will happen

is the same ability but appears as a different word form

prevision

vsprescience

Archaic

9.6

Thinking about the future to plan for it

is the same ability but exists as an alternative word form

foresightfulness

vsprescience

8.5

Careful planning for the future to meet needs and avoid problems

focuses on predicting events rather than careful planning or prudence

farsight

vsprescience

7.5

The ability to plan ahead and avoid future problems

is about knowing or predicting more than wise visionary planning

Antonyms

ignorance

316 3.9

Not knowing about something or how it works

How Predictive

foreknowledge

7 8.9

prescience

Formal

3 9.9

prediction

375 2.6

speculation

288 4.8

hunch

159 4.7

guess

768 1.0

Surface Forms

prescience singular

presciences plural

Morphology

prescience = science (semi-transparent) = pre + science

The components 'pre-' (before) + 'science' (knowledge/study) hint at 'foreknowledge', but 'science' commonly denotes systematic study rather than simple 'knowledge', so the meaning 'foresight' may not be fully obvious to average learners.

Etymology

The word prescience comes from the parts pre- 'before' and scire 'to know', the same root you find in science. So, prescience means 'knowing before', which is why it describes the ability to predict the future.