Prophecy
Etymology
From Greek “prophēteia,” from “prophētēs” (one who speaks for a god), from “pro-” (forth, on behalf of) plus “phēnai” (to speak). The “pro-” means “on behalf of,” not “beforehand,” so a prophet fundamentally speaks for the divine rather than merely foretelling. The prediction meaning grew out of the fact that such messages often warned about what was coming.
noun · /PROF-uh-see/
A message claimed to come from the divine, often but not always about the future.
What it names
Divinely sourced speech — a handle that corrects the popular idea that prophecy is just prediction.
Example
Most of the prophet’s recorded prophecy was moral warning to the powerful, not a forecast of dates.
Related idea
A prediction is a claim about the future on any basis; prophecy claims a divine source and is often about the present as much as the future.