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prescience

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English prescience, from Old French prescience, from Latin praescientia.

Pronunciation

Noun

prescience (usually uncountable, plural presciences)

  1. Knowledge of events before they take place. [from 14th c.]
    Synonyms: precognition, premonition
    Coordinate term: foretelling
    Near-synonyms: foreknowledge, foresight
    • 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.

Translations

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French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin praescientia.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pʁɛ.sjɑ̃s/ ~ /pʁe.sjɑ̃s/

Noun

prescience f (plural presciences)

  1. prescience

Further reading

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