presentient

9.9

Feeling that something will happen before it does

adjective
/ˈprɛzənʃənt/

Archaic

: presciente

She had a presentient feeling about the storm approaching.

Examples

Many people claim to have presentient feelings before important events.
She felt presentient anxiety before the results were announced.
His presentient thoughts made him uneasy as he entered the building.
Is he presentient about the changes in the company?
Many people claim to have presentient feelings about upcoming disasters.
He experienced a presentient awareness of the changes in his life before they occurred.
She often has presentient sensations before her friends arrive for visits.

Synonyms

prescient

vspresentient

Formal

16 8.9

Knowing about things before they happen

is a feeling or sense rather than explicit knowledge

precognitive

vspresentient

2 9.9

To know about an event before it happens

is an intuitive feeling rather than foresight or knowledge

premonitory

vspresentient

1 9.8

A sign that warns of something bad that may happen

is an inner feeling predicting events rather than an external sign

How Foreseeing

prescient

Formal

16 8.9

presentient

Archaic

9.9

intuitive

34 5.5

Surface Forms

presentient positive

Morphology

presentient = sentient (semi-transparent) = pre + sentient + sent

The prefix 'pre-' suggests 'before', and 'sentient' means 'able to perceive or feel things'. The combination implies a sense of perceiving before an event, but the exact meaning is not entirely intuitive.

Etymology

Presentient comes from Latin parts prae- 'before' and sentire 'to feel', the same root you see in words like sense or sentient, so it literally means a 'feeling before' and that is why it describes someone who feels that something will happen before it does.