forecasting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of forecast.

   Meteorologists are forecasting a cold front by Tuesday afternoon.

   Forecasting sales for the next quarter took the team several days.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs. After be it builds the progressive (meteorologists are forecasting a cold front). As a gerund it names the activity itself and still takes an object of its own (forecasting sales). Keep it apart from the noun for a single prediction. In older writing, the form can also carry forecast's obsolete sense of contriving or planning something beforehand.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A prediction or estimate of what is likely to happen in the future.

   The astrologer's forecasting proved surprisingly accurate that year.

   Their forecasting of an early frost convinced the farmers to harvest sooner.

   Similarprediction, prognostication, projection

   Note

   A noun with a medieval pedigree: Middle English already had forcastyng, so this is more than the verb's -ing form pressed into service. It is countable, with the plural forecastings, and usually takes of to say what is foreseen. The Dublin University Magazine of 1852 piles them up: forecastings of non-completion, forecastings of swift dissolution and crashing ruin.

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