prescience

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French prescience, from Latin praescientia.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛsɪ.əns/
    • (file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛʃɪns/
  • Rhymes: -ɛsɪəns

Noun

prescience (usually uncountable, plural presciences)

  1. Knowledge of events before they take place; foresight; foreknowledge.
    • 1754, Jonathan Edwards, An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions Respecting that Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency:
      God's certain prescience of the volitions of moral agents
    • 1815, Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, On a Sleeping Infant, page 198:
      O thou, who thus the eye hast veil'd,
      The book of fate so slowly given,
      I thank thee, that thou hast conceal'd
      From man the prescience of heaven.
    • 2020 September 23, Paul Bigland, “The tragic tale of the Tay Bridge disaster”, in Rail, page 83:
      With prescience, the Barlows designed them to withstand a third more weight than they would be expected to bear in normal conditions - future proofing the bridge for the weight of trains we see using it today.

Synonyms

Translations

French

Noun

prescience f (plural presciences)

  1. prescience

Further reading

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