These words refer to attempts to indicate what course the future will take. Predict is the most commonly used in the widest variety of situations; it can range in suggestion from the mere hazarding of a guess, or a wish, to the making of an astute statistical estimate about the likely outcome of an event: predicting that he would be miserable without her; predicting the results of the election with amazing accuracy. As in the last example, it is commonly used to refer to the activities of professional poll-takers. Like predict , forecast can range in use from the general or vague to the specific, but in this case its most specific use – for predicting weather – has crowded out other uses of the word: Weather satellites that make it easier to forecast cyclones.

Divine and foreshadow are both concerned with suggesting rather than predicting the future, especially through the giving or assessing of subtle hints or clues. Divine implies someone capable of reading present evidence in all its ambiguity and seeing where it must lead: the first political commentator to divine in Hitler’s threats the imminent upheaval of Europe. The word originally suggested supernatural powers of clairvoyance, but it is now seldom used in this sense. Foreshadow , unlike divine , does not necessarily imply a shrewd reader of clues; it can refer to anyone or anything that gives an indication of what is to come: Hitler’s plan of action foreshadowed the actual course of events so unmistakably that anyone should have been able to divine it. The word is often used to refer to a storyteller’s hints about what will happen eventually in his story: the novelist’s skilful foreshadowing of her heroine’s eventual tragic decline. During a meeting one may foreshadow a motion, usually to suggest that it may soon be moved in an effort to settle or clarify some matter under discussion at the moment.

Like divine , augur , prophesy and even foretell once suggested a supernatural ability to "read" the future. Now they have mainly lost this use, although they still suggest, unlike predict and forecast , a future that is already set and determined rather than one that can be rationally assumed from the evidence at hand. Of these three, augur is most like divine in implying a reading of subtle omens and clues as a way of prefiguring what is to come: auguring from a host of economic indicators that the present boom would continue unabated. The word, like foreshadow , can also refer to the sign or clue itself: a trend that augured well for the company. Prophesy is more portentous-sounding than augur , suggesting authoritative wisdom and acumen: the only pundit to prophesy a confrontation with Red China. Both augur and prophesy are sometimes used in place of predict and forecast to give a higher tone or to suggest unerring accuracy; many would find the uses questionable: poll-takers auguring a record majority for the party in power. Foretell now has fewer residual implications of the supernatural than augur and prophesy , as well as being far less formal. It would still sound odd as a substitute for predict or forecast . Like foreshadow , it can refer to the clue rather than to its reader: signs of a struggle that foretold a violent end for the kidnapped banker. It is often used negatively in referring to the past: Who could have foretold that such a routine tour was to culminate in such a tragedy?

In contrast to the words just discussed, prognosticate comes from a different context altogether. It suggests a knowledgeable look at the symptoms of a disease in order to determine its likely outcome. This give it a specific pertinence to medicine similar to predict for poll-taking and forecast for meteorology. Used outside this area, the word suggests inside knowledge, expertise or shrewdness, but is often used comically or pejoratively: prognosticating what effect another garlic pickle would have on his digestion.