foreshadow
12 synonyms for foreshadow, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Verb — To hint at someone or something before they appear or happen.
Synonyms
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Etymology
The verb comes from fore- (a prefix meaning ‘before with respect to time, earlier’) and shadow (“to shade, cloud, or darken”, verb). The noun comes from fore- and shadow (“faint and imperfect representation”, noun), and was probably modelled on the verb, which is recorded earlier.
Full origin of foreshadow →