Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Perception of the significance and nature of events after they have occurred.
- noun The rear sight of a firearm.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Backward sight or perception; knowledge or comprehension of what is past; afterthought: humorously opposed to foresight.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun understanding the nature of an event after it has happened.
- noun Perfect understanding of an event after it has happened; -- a term usually used with sarcasm in response to criticism of one's decision, implying that the critic is unfairly judging the wisdom of the decision in light of information that was not available when the decision was made.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Realisation orunderstanding of thesignificance andnature ofevents after they haveoccurred - noun The
rear sight of afirearm
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun understanding the nature of an event after it has happened
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Regarding the underlying issue, I would say that Carter in hindsight is fairly middling.
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The part that amazed me most, in hindsight, is just how wildly vocal and open he was about it.
Page 3 2009
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Saddened by the law-breakers, but giddy with happiness with the additional 2-10 million dollars this will generate, Police commissioner Julien Fantino had this to say: "The only regret I have now, in hindsight, is that I didn't go after 30 over [the limit] as opposed to 50 over."
Archive 2007-10-01 2007
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Only in hindsight is it evident that they were deterrable.
Containing Iran 2006
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Only in hindsight is it evident that they were deterrable.
Containing Iran 2006
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Still, the committee had had earlier opportunities to honor the man who, in hindsight, is generally seen as the leading spokesman of non-violence in the 20th century.
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If this is the case then what harm could be done except to aknowledge that in "hindsight" the position should be in place, which if I heard right, has already been done, and that should be the end of that!
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Petitioner himself addressed the court and stated that in "hindsight," he should not have used "that choice of words" and that he had not intended to be disruptive.
First Department 2006
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Still, it would be interesting if some senator, just to get her off script, were to ask her if in hindsight she sees things any differently.
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Saying they should have done x, y and z with the benefit of hindsight is fine.
ry commented on the word hindsight
see comments at hindsighting
April 23, 2014