fore-
/fɔː/
"fore" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fore-” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prefix. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Before with respect to time; earlier.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fore · fore- · English
fore- · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fore- |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prefix |
| IPA | /fɔː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fore-” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fore- is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprefix, transcribed /fɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 18 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for fore- in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fore-, from Old English fore-, from Proto-West Germanic *forē-, from Proto-Germanic *fura-, *furai- (“before, in front of, for”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, formerly; through, throughout”). Akin to Old Saxon and Old High Ge… The correct English form is fore-, spelled F-O-R-E--.
Definition
- 1Before with respect to time; earlier.
- 2Before with respect to time; earlier.
- 3Before with respect to time; earlier.
- 4Before with respect to position: front, ahead, leading, anterior.
- 5Before with respect to position: front, ahead, leading, anterior.
- 6Before with respect to position: front, ahead, leading, anterior.
- 7Before with respect to position: front, ahead, leading, anterior.
- 8Before with respect to position: front, ahead, leading, anterior.
- 9Before with respect to position: front, ahead, leading, anterior.
- 10Before with respect to position: front, ahead, leading, anterior.
- 11Forward in direction.
- 12Forward in direction.
- 13Forward in direction.
- 14Before with respect to order or rank: first, prior, superior, ahead.
- 15Before with respect to order or rank: first, prior, superior, ahead.
- 16Before with respect to order or rank: first, prior, superior, ahead.
- 17Before with respect to order or rank: first, prior, superior, ahead.
- 18Before with respect to order or rank: first, prior, superior, ahead.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how fore- appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
foredescribed
Etymology
From Middle English fore-, from Old English fore-, from Proto-West Germanic *forē-, from Proto-Germanic *fura-, *furai- (“before, in front of, for”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, formerly; through, throughout”). Akin to Old Saxon and Old High German fora-, Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰- (faura-) (see 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰 (faura)), Dutch voor- (“fore-”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.