foreword

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

foreword

/ˈfɔːwɜːd/ UK
/ˈfɔɹwɝd/ Canada, US
/ˈfɔɹwɚd/ Canada, US

Where it comes from

Morphologically fore- + word. Calque of German Vorwort, itself a calque of Latin praefatio (“preface”). Cognate with German Low German Vörwoord (“foreword”), Dutch voorwoord (“foreword”), West Frisian foarwurd (“foreword”), Danish forord (“preface; proviso”), Swedish förord (“foreword”). Compare also Old English forword, foreword (“proviso; condition”).

noun forewords

An introductory section preceding the main text of a book or other document; especially, one written by another person (not the author of the work thus introduced). He closes the foreword by acknowledging that his proposals would have far-reaching impacts on railway staff, communities and industry - and passes the buck onto government to ensure that these consequences are managed appropriately.
Similar: forespeech, foretale, foretalk, foreword · Opposite: afterword, epilogue, endsay, conclusion, last word, postamble, endspeech

Opposite: afterword, back matter, epilogue, endsay, conclusion, last word, postamble

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: preface, prolusion, prologue, preamble, prelude, preambular, introduction, presentation, abstract, export, forward, exportation, background, foreward, chapeau, exported

noun

Opposite: afterword, back matter, epilogue, endsay, conclusion, last word, postamble

Translations

Every language

noun an introductory section

Español	prefacio
中文	前言 qiányán, 序 xù
हिन्दी	प्राक्कथन prākkathan, प्रस्तावना prastāvnā, भूमिका bhūmikā, आमुख āmukh, अवतरणिका avtarṇikā, पेश-लफ़्ज़ peś-lafz
Português	prefácio
Français	avant-propos
Deutsch	Vorwort, Vorrede
Italiano	prefazione
Ελληνικά	πρόλογος prólogos
Română	cuvânt înainte
Русский	предисло́вие predislóvije
Tiếng Việt	lời tựa, lời nói đầu

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"foreword." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/foreword. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

foreword. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/foreword

Chicago

"foreword." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/foreword.

BibTeX

@misc{foreword_2026,
  title = {foreword},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/foreword},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}