Predict

How to spell predict

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce predict

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does predict mean?

1. verbTo say in advance that something will happen, based on reason or evidence.

Predict in a sentence

• Analysts predict a sharp rise in fuel prices this winter.

• The forecast tries to predict rainfall for the coming week.

Where does predict come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Predict comes from the Latin praedicere, meaning 'to say beforehand' or 'to foretell', formed from prae 'before' and dicere 'to say' or 'to tell'. That dicere root is enormously productive in English: it also gave us 'dictate', 'verdict', 'contradict' and 'diction', all of which involve saying or telling in some way. The Latin past participle praedictus passed into English usage around the early 1600s, when scholars and astrologers used it for stating in advance what was to come. The spelling stays remarkably faithful to its source, keeping the clean prae- (now pre-) plus the -dict stem, so once you recognise the 'before' plus 'say' structure the word is hard to get wrong. Knowing that the same -dict element sits in 'dictionary' helps fix the single c and t in the mind.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• dict (from dicere: to say, tell)
• (verb)