Forefront

How to spell forefront

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce forefront

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does forefront mean?

1. nounThe most prominent or important position in an activity, field, or attention.

Forefront in a sentence

• The company stayed at the forefront of battery research for a decade.

• Safety concerns were pushed to the forefront of the board meeting.

Where does forefront come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a transparent English compound, joining the native prefix 'fore-', meaning 'in front of' or 'before', to the noun 'front'. The 'fore-' element is Old English and shows up in many familiar words such as 'forehead', 'foreground' and 'foresee', where it always signals the leading or earlier position. 'Front' itself travelled into English through Old French from the Latin frons, which literally meant 'forehead' and then more generally 'the front part of anything'. The two pieces were stitched together in the early 1800s to name the very foremost part of something, whether a physical line or, far more commonly today, a leading position in an activity or field. Because the spelling simply stacks 'fore' onto 'front', the only real trap is remembering the 'e' in 'fore' and resisting the urge to write 'forfront'.

How the word is built

• fore- (front, before)
• front (from Latin frons: forehead, front)