foreword

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːwɜːd/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹwɝd/, /ˈfɔɹwɚd/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Homophones: forward (US, Canada)
• Hyphenation: fore‧word

Noun

foreword (plural forewords)

1. 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).

   Antonyms: afterword, epilogue, endsay, conclusion, last word, postamble; see also Thesaurus:afterword

   Coordinate terms: (broadly synonymous) foretalk, foretale, preface, introduction, prologue, preamble; see also Thesaurus:foreword

   • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 44:

     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.

Translations

an introductory section

• Armenian: առաջաբան (hy) (aṙaǰaban)
• Bulgarian: предговор (bg) m (predgovor), предисловие (bg) n (predislovie)
• Catalan: pròleg
• Cebuano: pasiuna
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 前言 (zh) (qiányán), 序 (zh) (xù)

• Czech: předmluva f
• Danish: forord (da) c, fortale n
• Dutch: voorwoord (nl) n, inleiding (nl)
• Esperanto: antaŭparolo
• Estonian: eessõna
• Finnish: esipuhe (fi), alkusanat (fi)
• French: avant-propos (fr) m
• Galician: limiar (gl) m, prefacio m
• German: Vorwort (de) n, Vorrede (de)
• Greek: πρόλογος (el) m (prólogos)
• Hindi: प्राक्‍कथन (prāk‍kathan), प्रस्तावना (hi) (prastāvnā), पेश-लफ़्ज़ (peś-lafz), दीबाचा (hi) (dībācā), दो शब्द (do śabd), हर्फ़-ए-आग़ाज़ (harf-e-āġāz), आमुख (hi) (āmukh), भूमिका (hi) (bhūmikā), अवतरणिका (hi) (avtarṇikā), प्रकाशकीय (prakāśkīya)
• Hungarian: előszó (hu)
• Icelandic: formáli m, forspjall n
• Indonesian: kata pengantar (id), prakata (id)
• Ingrian: esisana, alkujutto, toimitussana
• Irish: réamhrá m
• Italian: prefazione (it) m
• Kankanaey: panangiam-ammo
• Kannada: ಮುನ್ನುಡಿ (kn) (munnuḍi)
• Kazakh: алғы сөз (alğy söz), кіріспе (kırıspe), алғысөз (alğysöz)
• Latvian: priekšvārds
• Livonian: eḑḑisõnā
• Macedonian: предговор (predgovor)
• Maori: kupu whakataki
• Norwegian: forord (no) n, fortale m
• Polish: przedmowa (pl) f, przedsłowie (pl) n (archaic)
• Portuguese: prefácio (pt) m
• Romanian: cuvânt înainte (ro) n
• Russian: предисло́вие (ru) n (predislóvije)
• Scottish Gaelic: ro-ràdh m
• Serbo-Croatian: predgovor (sh) m
• Slovak: predslov m, predhovor
• Spanish: prefacio (es) m
• Swedish: förord (sv) n
• Tagalog: paunang salita, bungadsabi
• Ukrainian: передмова f (peredmova)
• Uyghur: مۇقەددىمە (muqeddime)
• Vietnamese: lời tựa (𠳒序), lời nói đầu (𠳒呐頭)
• Welsh: rhagair (cy) m