Future

How to spell future

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce future

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does future mean?

1. nounThe time that is still to come, after the present.
2. adjectiveRelating to or existing in the time still to come.

Future in a sentence

• noun

  She is saving carefully to secure her financial future.

• adjective

  Future generations will inherit the choices we make today.

• noun

  The report tries to predict what the future holds for the industry.

• adjective

  The contract protects against any future price increases.

Where does future come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin futurus, the future participle of the verb esse, which simply means 'to be'; futurus therefore meant 'about to be' or 'going to happen'. English took it through Old French futur in the fourteenth century, where it served first as an adjective for things still to come and then as a noun for the time ahead. Because it grew straight out of the verb 'to be', the word literally captures the idea of existence not yet arrived. The same Latin root surfaces in 'futurist' and in the grammatical 'future tense'. The spelling preserves the Latin -ure ending seen in relatives like 'nature' and 'creature', and the tricky part for many writers is the 'tu' that sounds like 'ch'.

How the word is built

• fut- (from Latin futurus: about to be)
• -ure (noun-forming suffix)