forthcoming

Pluralforthcomings

1. 1
   adjective

   Approaching or about to take place; due to happen in the near future.

   The forthcoming election has dominated the news for weeks.

   Critics have already praised her forthcoming novel before its release.

   Similarupcoming, imminent, impending, pending, approaching

   Oppositepast, previous, former

   Note

   The word is built the way it sounds. It joins forth, 'forwards', to coming, 'approaching', or else descends from Middle English forth commyng, from a verb meaning 'to come forth'. In this time sense it does not grade: an election is forthcoming or it is not. It sits most naturally before its noun, as in a forthcoming book or the forthcoming election.

2. 2
   adjective

   Made available or provided at the time it is needed; ready and in place.

   Funding for the project was not forthcoming despite repeated requests.

   Whenever a crisis arose, support from her colleagues was always forthcoming.

   Similaravailable, obtainable

   Oppositeunavailable, lacking

   Note

   Here the word almost always follows a verb rather than a noun: the money was not forthcoming; support has not been forthcoming. It is at home in negative statements about funds, help or backing that were expected and never arrived, and its opposite is unforthcoming. Karl Popper, in The Poverty of Historicism (1957), uses it hopefully instead, saying that support 'may be forthcoming' for a nation's necessary measures.

3. 3
   adjective

   Willing to cooperate or share information; open, candid, and responsive.

   Investigators complained that the company was less than forthcoming about the leak.

   He became more forthcoming once he realized he wasn't in any trouble.

   Similaropen, candid, communicative, frank, forthright

   Oppositereticent, secretive, evasive, guarded

   Note

   The personal sense is the one that grades. Someone can be more forthcoming or the most forthcoming, unlike the 'upcoming' meaning. It measures how freely a person talks or helps, and it is often hedged, like the evasive client who is 'not really forthcoming' in David Michael Kaplan's Skating in the Dark (1991). Said of a person, it means candid; said of money or support, it means simply available.

4. 4
   noun

   Something that is yet to come; a thing still lying in the future.

   The prophet spoke less of the present than of the forthcoming.

   He saved his hopes for the forthcoming, trusting that better days lay ahead.

   Similarfuture

   Oppositepast

   Note

   The noun takes a plural, forthcomings, and can name things that issue from somewhere rather than merely things scheduled to happen. Archibald Mackerrell's An Apology for the Gift of Tongues (1831) speaks of 'the audible forthcomings of a present living God', realities coming out from eternity. The usage carries the solemn, devotional weight of that context.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The act or instance of coming forth; an emergence into view or presence.

   The guards announced the prisoner's forthcoming from the inner cell.

   His forthcoming from years of seclusion was greeted with great curiosity.

   Similaremergence, appearance, exit

   Oppositewithdrawal

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