Foregoing

How to spell foregoing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce foregoing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does foregoing mean?

1. adjectiveComing before; previously stated or mentioned in the same document or discussion.
2. nounThe things just stated or written before this point, treated as a single body of material.

Foregoing in a sentence

• adjective

  The foregoing paragraphs set out the full terms of the lease.

• noun

  The foregoing may be summarised in three short points.

• adjective

  All of the foregoing figures were taken from last year's audited accounts.

• noun

  Nothing in the foregoing should be read as legal advice.

Where does foregoing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends directly from Old English, where the verb foregan meant 'to go before' or 'to precede', formed from the prefix fore-, meaning 'before' or 'in front of', and gan, the ancestor of the modern verb 'go'. The present participle 'foregoing' came to describe whatever had gone before in a text or a discussion, so it settled into its modern sense of 'the preceding' or 'the aforementioned'. The fore- element is the same one found in 'forecast', 'foretell' and 'forehead', all carrying the idea of something positioned ahead or earlier. The crucial spelling trap is the silent but essential 'e' in fore-: drop it and you get 'forgoing', a completely different word built on the verb 'forgo', meaning to do without something. Keeping that 'e' is what marks the 'going before' meaning rather than the 'giving up' meaning.

How the word is built

• fore- (before, in front of)
• go (to go)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)