A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells. Later editions of a book sometimes have a new foreword prepended (appearing before an older foreword if there was one), which might explain in what respects that edition differs from previous ones.

ForeWord is a trade journal published six times yearly with the tagline, “Reviews of Good Books Independently Published.” The magazine is distributed primarily to librarians and booksellers to familiarize them with upcoming books from small, independent, and university presses, as well as self-published books, which often don’t receive the media attention that books published by large houses do. The average issue of ForeWord reaches an audience of 20,000 readers.

L’avant-propos, est l’un des synonymes de préface.

Förord benämns den del som oftast placeras i början av en publikation (oftast böcker) där författaren, redaktören, en expert eller någon annan typ av person som har någon form av koppling till publikationen (oftast yrkes- eller kunskapsmässigt) introducerar publikationen, berättar hur idén till publikationen kom till och/eller hur arbetet fortskred.