Forthcoming

How to spell forthcoming

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce forthcoming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does forthcoming mean?

1. adjectiveAbout to happen, appear, or be released in the near future.
2. adjectiveWilling to give information; open and ready to share what is asked.

Forthcoming in a sentence

• The publisher announced the author's forthcoming novel for the spring.

• The witness was not forthcoming about what she had seen that night.

• Details of the forthcoming election were printed in the local paper.

• Managers should be forthcoming with staff about the company's finances.

Where does forthcoming come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, built from two thoroughly Germanic pieces inherited from Old English. The first element is 'forth', from Old English 'forth' (forward or onward), the same word that survives in expressions like 'back and forth'. The second is 'coming', the participle of 'come', from Old English 'cuman' (to come or arrive). Joined together from around the fourteenth century, 'forthcoming' first meant simply 'about to come forth' or 'approaching', as in an event soon to arrive. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it had also gathered the figurative sense of a person being open and ready to give what is asked, that is, willing to share information. The spelling trap is the silent join in the middle: the 'th' of 'forth' sits directly against the 'c' of 'coming', so writers must remember both the 'th' and the single 'c'.

How the word is built

• forth (forward, out, ahead)
• coming (present participle of 'come', from come
• -ing)