prospect
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The potential things that may come to pass, often favorable.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prahspektSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹɑspɛkt
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
The potential things that may come to pass, often favorable.
sales
A potential client or customer.
The region which the eye overlooks at one time; view; scene; outlook.
A picturesque or panoramic view; a landscape; hence, a sketch of a landscape.
A position afford a fine view; a lookout.
Relative position of the front of a building or other structure; face; relative aspect.
verb
Search for something desirable
intransitive
To search, as for gold.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The potential things that may come to pass, often favorable.
Used this way, prospect is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately 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.
More ways to use prospect
- “His prospects as a writer are excellent.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Someone who explores an area for mineral deposits.
Related to The potential things that may come to pass, often favorable.
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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.