Prescience: meaning, definitions and examples

Prescience is used when someone has knowledge about events before they happen. It implies an almost scientific or analytical ability to predict the future.

• His prescience about the stock market saved his company from financial disaster.
• The scientist's prescience allowed her team to prepare for the upcoming natural disaster.

Foresight is the ability to predict or plan for future events based on understanding and reasoning. It is practical and often used in planning and decision-making contexts.

• His keen foresight helped the company navigate through difficult times.
• With great foresight, she invested in green technologies early on.

Clairvoyance is often used in a mystical or supernatural context. It refers to the ability to gain information about an object, person, or event through extrasensory perception.

• The fortune teller claimed she had the gift of clairvoyance.
• Her clairvoyance was widely regarded as the reason for her accurate predictions.

Prophecy usually has a religious or mythic connotation. It involves a message or prediction made through divine inspiration or revelation.

• The ancient texts contained a prophecy about the return of the lost king.
• The prophecy foretold the fall of the empire.