posterity
All people who will live in the future, especially when we think about how they will remember or use what we do now.
All future generations of people considered as a group, especially when thinking about how they will view or benefit from what is done today.
All the people who will be born from one person or family in the future.
All the descendants of a particular person, family, or group, considered as a continuing line into the future.
- Base: posterity
- Plural: posterities, posterity
be judged by posterity
1evaluated by people in the future
To have your actions or decisions considered as good or bad by people who will live in the future.
- Their leadership will be judged by posterity, not just by today’s voters.
- He believed that his controversial choices would be judged kindly by posterity.
for posterity
1so future people can know it
To keep, save, or record something so that people in the future will be able to see it or remember it.
- They took a formal wedding photo for posterity.
- The speech was recorded for posterity and stored in the national archive.
- I’m writing down our family stories for posterity.
leave to posterity
1pass something on to future people
To cause something (such as an idea, work, or world condition) to exist for people who will live in the future.
- He hoped to leave a cleaner planet to posterity.
- What kind of society do we want to leave to posterity?
preserve for posterity
1keep something safe for future people
To protect and keep something in good condition so that people in the future will still have it.
- The castle is being preserved for posterity as a historical monument.
- We must preserve these rare books for posterity.
record for posterity
1document something for future people
To write down, film, or otherwise document something so that people in the future can see or study it.
- The ceremony was recorded for posterity by several news crews.
- She kept a diary to record her experiences for posterity.
save for posterity
1keep something for future people
To keep something and not throw it away or destroy it, so that people in the future can see or use it.
- The letters were saved for posterity in a wooden box.
- We should save examples of today’s technology for posterity.