forethought
/ˈfɔː(ɹ)θɔːt/
"forethought" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“forethought” is uncommon English (frequency #54,782 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,782
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Thinking beforehand or in advance, planning; prior or previous consideration.
Corpus desk
Index EN-forethought · forethought · English
forethought · rank #54,782 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,782
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fook
Nearest frequency peer: fook (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “forethought”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- flexibly
flexibly
45,222 corpus weight
- flightless
flightless
45,221 corpus weight
- fook
fook
45,220 corpus weight
- forethought
forethought
45,219 corpus weight
- formalize
formalize
45,218 corpus weight
- frag
frag
45,217 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “forethought” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | forethought |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɔː(ɹ)θɔːt/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #54,782 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “forethought” in English
Rare enough to double-check
forethought is uncommon English at frequency #54,782 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfɔː(ɹ)θɔːt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for forethought in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English forethouht, forethoght, from Old English *foreþōht (“forethought”); equivalent to fore- + thought. See also forethink. The correct English form is forethought, spelled F-O-R-E-T-H-O-U-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1Thinking beforehand or in advance, planning; prior or previous consideration.
- 2Anticipation.
- 3Provident care; prudence.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how forethought appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonym: foresight
With a little forethought we'd have planned for this contingency and not been stuck here now.
Etymology
From Middle English forethouht, forethoght, from Old English *foreþōht (“forethought”); equivalent to fore- + thought. See also forethink.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "forethought", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).