forefront

English

Etymology

From Middle English forefrount, forfrount, forefronte, equivalent to fore- +‎ front.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹfɹʌnt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːfɹʌnt/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /fo(ː)ɹfɹʌnt/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /foəfɹʌnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)fɹʌnt

Noun

forefront (plural forefronts)

1. The leading position or edge.

   That laboratory researches topics at the forefront of technology.

   • 2012 March 4, Alice Rawsthorn, “Farewell, Pocket Calculator?”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Today, the pocket calculator is a dying product, a casualty of digitization, which has been relegated to the role of a graphic icon on phone and computer screens rather than an object in its own right, but back in the early 1970s, it was at the forefront of consumer technology.

   • 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19:

     It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today – with America standing out in the forefront and the UK not far behind.

   • 2023 August 9, “Network News: Network Rail under fire for spending thousands of pounds on flights”, in RAIL, number 989, page 15:

     He said that with the world facing a climate crisis, "it is up to those at the forefront of our industry - like Network Rail - to lead by example".

Translations

forefront

• Arabic: طَلِيعَة f (ṭalīʕa)
• Azerbaijani: ön cərgə
• Bulgarian: преден план m (preden plan)
• Catalan: avantguarda (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 第一線 / 第一线 (zh) (dìyīxiàn), 前沿 (zh) (qiányán)

• Czech: popředí (cs) n
• Dutch: voorgrond (nl) m
• Esperanto: antaŭparto
• Finnish: eturintama (fi), kärkikasti, kärkipää
• French: avant-garde (fr) f, premier plan (fr) m
• Galician: vangarda f, primeira liña f
• German: Vordergrund (de) m
• Greek: εμπροσθοφυλακή (el) f (emprosthofylakí), πρωτοπορία (el) f (protoporía), πρώτη γραμμή f (próti grammí)
• Irish: urthosach m
• Italian: primo piano m
• Japanese: 第一線 (だいいっせん, daiissen)
• Maori: haputa (of battle)
• Portuguese: primeiro plano m
• Russian: пере́дний край (ru) m (perédnij kraj), аванга́рд (ru) m (avangárd), пере́дний план m (perédnij plan), передова́я (ru) f (peredovája)
• Spanish: vanguardia (es) f, primer plano m

Verb

forefront (third-person singular simple present forefronts, present participle forefronting, simple past and past participle forefronted)

1. (transitive) To bring to the forefront; to emphasize, or focus on.
   • 2015 July 8, Anne Rogers et al., “Meso level influences on long term condition self-management: stakeholder accounts of commonalities and differences across six European countries”, in BMC Public Health‎^[2], volume 15, →DOI:

     The impact of austerity and economic circumstances were forefronted in the more economically deprived countries of the partner countries (BG, GR) and seen as producing a fateful impact on access to diet and healthy lifestyle options.