Prescient

Prescient is an adjective meaning having knowledge of events before they occur or showing unusually early understanding of the future—essentially, foresight. The term comes from Latin praescire “to know beforehand,” via French prescient, with the noun form prescience.

In contemporary use, prescient describes accurate anticipation based on analysis, data, or insight, rather than supernatural means. It is often contrasted with prophetic, which implies foretelling by divine inspiration; prescient implies skillful anticipation, possibly grounded in information.

A related noun, prescience, denotes the faculty of knowing future events or the quality of farsighted insight. The phrase prescient insight is common in commentary on business, technology trends, or political developments when predictions later prove correct. The word can describe people, actions, or works that appear to anticipate later outcomes. In fiction and cultural discussion, a prescient work is one that seems to foresee real-world developments.

Prescient is not synonymous with clairvoyant or prophetic; those terms imply supernatural or divinatory powers, whereas prescient typically connotes careful judgment, analysis of evidence, and plausible foresight.

Related terms include prescience, foresight, prediction, forecast, clairvoyance, and prophecy.