anticipation
noun
Simple meaning
A feeling of looking forward to something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
antihsuhpayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
æntɪsəˈpeɪʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Something expected (as on the basis of a norm)
“Each of them had their own anticipations.”
The eagerness associated with waiting for something to occur.
The act of anticipating, taking up, placing, or considering something beforehand, or before the proper time in natural order.
The act of predicting (as by reasoning about the future)
finance
Prepayment of a debt, generally in order to pay less interest.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Something expected (as on the basis of a norm)
Used this way, anticipation is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Each of them had their own anticipations.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.