prefigurement
Hint of future
Prefigurement is a foreshadowing or anticipation of something to come—an earlier form, event, or symbol that suggests or represents what will follow.
The word appears most often in religious and literary contexts, where earlier events are read as previews of later ones: Some theologians see the Passover lamb as a prefigurement of Christ's sacrifice.
The verb is prefigure.
Indicate future events
- portentSign of future calamity
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
- presageIndicate beforehand
- foretokenProphetic indication
adumbration · foreboding · forewarning · hint · intimation · suggestion · allusion · premonition
Authoritative wisdom source
- prophecyForetelling of future events
- divinationForetelling through mystical means
- predictionForecast of coming events
- prognosticationForetelling future events
revelation · foretelling · presage · augury · soothsaying · seer · visionary · clairvoyance
Category sharing traits
- antitypeForeshadowed thing now realized
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- typologyClassification by shared traits
- archetypeOriginal model for copies
prototype · symbol · emblem · representation · shadow · image · pattern · model
One that comes before
- antecedentSomething that precedes
- predecessorOne who came first
- heraldOfficial news announcer
- pioneerEarly explorer or settler
vanguard · preliminary · ancestor · progenitor · originator · prototype · archetype · trailblazer
foreshadow
Indicate future events
foretoken · adumbration · foreboding · forewarning · hint · intimation · suggestion · allusion · premonition · foretaste
oracle
Authoritative wisdom source
- prophecyForetelling of future events
- divinationForetelling through mystical means
- predictionForecast of coming events
prognostication · revelation · foretelling · presage · augury · soothsaying · seer · visionary · clairvoyance · sibyl
type
Category sharing traits
- antitypeForeshadowed thing now realized
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- typologyClassification by shared traits
archetype · prototype · symbol · emblem · representation · shadow · image · pattern · model · exemplar
forerunner
One that comes before
- antecedentSomething that precedes
- predecessorOne who came first
- heraldOfficial news announcer
pioneer · vanguard · preliminary · ancestor · progenitor · originator · prototype · archetype · trailblazer · pathfinder
prefigurementhindsight
Recognition after the fact
retrospect · retrospection · looking back · afterthought · postmortem
prefigurementfulfillment
State of achieved purpose
realization · actualization · consummation · antitype · completion
figure, effigy, disfigure, configuration, transfigure, prefigure, prefigured, prefiguration, prefigures