Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The indefinite time yet to come.
  • noun Something that will happen in time to come.
  • noun A prospective or expected condition, especially one considered with regard to growth, advancement, or development.
  • noun A financial instrument that obligates the holder to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a specified date in the future.
  • noun The form of a verb used in speaking of action that has not yet occurred or of states not yet in existence.
  • noun A verb form in the future tense.
  • adjective That is to be or to come; of or existing in later time.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • That is to be or come hereafter; that will exist at any time after the present; pertaining to time subsequent to the present: as, the next moment is future to the present.
  • Relating to later time, or to that which is to come; referring to or expressing futurity: as, one's future prospects; the future tense in grammar. In technical use often abbreviated future
  • noun Time to come; time subsequent to the present, or that which will or may happen after the present time.
  • noun A speculative purchase or sale of stock or other commodities for future receipt or delivery. See to deal in futures, below.
  • noun In grammar, the future tense. See tense.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Time to come; time subsequent to the present (as, the future shall be as the present); collectively, events that are to happen in time to come.
  • noun The possibilities of the future; -- used especially of prospective success or advancement.
  • noun (Gram.) A future tense.
  • noun [Brokers' cant] to speculate on the future values of merchandise or stocks.
  • adjective That is to be or come hereafter; that will exist at any time after the present.
  • adjective (Gram.) the tense or modification of a verb which expresses a future act or event.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The time ahead; those moments yet to be experienced.
  • noun Something that will happen in moments yet to come.
  • noun Goodness in what is yet to come/Something to look foreward to.
  • noun grammar Verb tense used to talk about events that will happen in the future; future tense.
  • noun finance An agreement between two parties that one will sell the other a specific commodity at a specific later date and a specific price.
  • adjective Having to do with or occurring in the future.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the future
  • noun the time yet to come
  • adjective yet to be or coming
  • adjective effective in or looking toward the future
  • adjective a verb tense or other formation referring to events or states that have not yet happened
  • adjective (of elected officers) elected but not yet serving
  • noun bulk commodities bought or sold at an agreed price for delivery at a specified future date

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French futur, from Latin futūrus, about to be; see bheuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin futūrus, irregular future active participle of sum ("I am"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhū-, *bʰew- (“to become, be”). Cognate with Old English bēo ("I become, I will be, I am"). More at be.

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Examples

  • But, as he gained a little strength from the genial season, the pure country air, and the release from gloomy thoughts which his rambles afforded, the end was farther removed, and a future -- though brief, perhaps, still a _future_ -- began to glimmer before him.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 57, July, 1862 Various

  • In addition, if that debate was intended to secure from the Government an intimation of future policy against Southern shipbuilding it was conducted on wrong lines for _immediate_ effect -- though friends of the North may have thought the method used was wise for _future_ effect.

    Great Britain and the American Civil War Ephraim Douglass Adams

  • Science Fiction is not about predicting or anticipating the future, it's about helping us prepare for the future, * any future* and exploring the consequences of actions and situations.

    TPN :: GDay World 2009

  • When we pass through the inexorable gates of the future; when we pass through that vestibule where death stands opening his everlasting gates as widely to the pauper as to the king; when we pass out here into the _dim mysteries of the future_, to confront, it may be, the interrogations of the Eternal, -- I apprehend _every man's responsibility will go with him_, and no second-hand opinions will answer for us. "[

    Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws James Buchanan 1837

  • Somehow he turned the fact that he "screwed up" to his advantage, though how many times he can get away with this ruse in future is open to question.

    Is Gordon Brown about to make an apology? Not a sheep 2009

  • But the notion that the CSD wants to grow into a licensing body so that the message going out in future is that only members should be approached for design work in future is a dangerous development.

    Why the Chartered Society of Designers does not get design Jonathan 2006

  • But the notion that the CSD wants to grow into a licensing body so that the message going out in future is that only members should be approached for design work in future is a dangerous development.

    Archive 2006-12-01 Jonathan 2006

  • And we can also hope to learn much more in future from the studies of the activities of firms which have recently been initiated by the Center for

    Ronald H. Coase - Prize Lecture 1997

  • Another step on the road to equality of educational opportunity and a toe-hold into an uncertain future is the introduction - through encouragement of and cooperation with the private sector - of the first and most sophisticated microcomputer designed exclusively for educational purposes in the world.

    Perspectives on Politics 1985

  • Writer and sociologist Alvin Toffler 1970 coined the term future shock to describe the feeling of vague, continuous anxiety that arises in people who are subjected to a rapid pace of change.

    Stress and the Manager KARL ALBRECHT 1979

Comments

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  • Why the Lucky Stiff says: Everyone is Here, in the Future.

    August 25, 2008

  • “It makes no more sense to talk of changing the future than it does to talk of changing the past. Suppose that I decide to change the future, by having coffee for breakfast tomorrow instead of my usual tea. Have I changed the future? No. For coffee for breakfast was the future. It has been objected to me that the above argument is perhaps misleading. For, it has been said, there is quite clearly a sense in which I can change the future and not the past, and this is because my acts of will determine the future and not the past — I cannot undo what has been done. Now I do not wish to deny that we can causally affect the future and not the past, and indeed this causal directionality of time is part of the problem of the ‘direction of time.’ Nevertheleless I would reiterate that the fact that our present actions determine that future would be most misleadingly expressed or described by saying that we can change the future. A man can change his trousers, his club, or his job. Perhaps he may even change the course of world history or the state of scientific thought. But one thing that he cannot change is the future, since whatever he brings about is the future, and nothing else is, or ever was.”

    – J.J.C. Smart, Problems of Space and Time, 1964 (via futilitycloset.com)

    August 25, 2010

  • The Problem of Future Contingents

    If there will be a sea battle tomorrow, then that fact is true today and has always been true. Our future is thus inevitable. What freedom is left to us?

    On the other hand, if statements about the future are neither true nor false today, then how can God have perfect foreknowledge of the future?

    (from futilitycloset.com)

    September 9, 2010

  • The future for the Russian Federation may be unpredictable but seems to lie along the Ulitsa Putina.

    March 4, 2012