Wiktionary

future

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English future, futur, from Old French futur, from Latin futūrus, irregular future active participle of sum (“I am”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, be”). Cognate with Old English bēo (“I become, I will be, I am”). More at be. Displaced native Old English tōweard and Middle English afterhede (“future”, literally “afterhood”) in the given sense.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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future (countable and uncountable, plural futures)

  2. The time ahead; those moments yet to be experienced.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Krogan: Culture Codex entry:
      This solitary attitude stems in part from a deep sense of fatalism and futility, a profound social effect of the genophage that caused krogan numbers to dwindle to a relative handful. Not only are they angry that the entire galaxy seems out to get them, the krogan are also generally pessimistic about their race's chances of survival. The surviving krogan see no point to building for the future; there will be no future. The krogan live with an attitude of "kill, pillage, and be selfish, for tomorrow we die."
  3. Something that will happen in moments yet to come.
  4. Goodness in what is yet to come. Something to look forward to.
    There is no future in dwelling on the past.
    • 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
  5. The likely prospects for or fate of someone or something in time to come.
    • 2020 May 20, John Crosse, “Soon to be gone... but never forgotten”, in Rail, page 63:
      Again, it's unlikely they will return to traffic, but futures have been secured for four that will be heading to heritage railways [...].
  6. (grammar) Verb tense used to talk about events that will happen in the future; future tense.
  7. (finance) Alternative form of futures
  8. (computing, programming) An object that retrieves the value of a promise.
  9. (sports) A minor-league prospect.

Usage notes

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  • (finance): The one who agrees to, at a future date, sell the commodity is considered to be selling the future; the other buys it.
  • (finance): A non-standardized contract to buy and sell in the future is called forward or forward contract.

Synonyms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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grammar — see future tense
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Adjective

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future (not comparable)

  1. Having to do with or occurring in the future.
    Future generations will either laugh or cry at our stupidity.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
    • 2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America‎[1], archived from the original on 7 February 2019:
      It[The study] also attempts to predict the future progression of AI as it relates to new inventions.
      Audio (US):(file)

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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French

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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future

  1. feminine singular of futur

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /fuˈtu.re/
  • Rhymes: -ure
  • Hyphenation: fu‧tù‧re

Adjective

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future f pl

  1. feminine plural of futuro

Latin

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Participle

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futūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of futūrus

Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Old French futur, from Latin futūrus, past participle of sum (cognate to Middle English been).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /fiu̯ˈtiu̯r/, /ˈfiu̯tur/, /ˈfiu̯tir/

Noun

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future (plural futures)

  1. (rare) A future action or doing; that which happens in the future.
  2. (rare) The future; the time beyond the present.

Descendants

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  • English: future
  • Scots: futur

References

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Adjective

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future

  1. Occurring after the present; future or upcoming.
  2. (rare, grammar) Having the future tense; grammatically marking futureness.

Descendants

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References

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Norman

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Adjective

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future

  1. feminine singular of futur

Old French

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Noun

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future oblique singular, m (oblique plural futures, nominative singular futures, nominative plural future)

  1. (grammar) future (tense)

Portuguese

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Verb

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future

  1. inflection of futurar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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