Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To wish for a particular event that one considers possible.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To have confidence; trust.
  • intransitive verb To desire and consider possible: synonym: expect.
  • noun The longing or desire for something accompanied by the belief in the possibility of its occurrence.
  • noun An instance of such longing or desire.
  • noun A source of or reason for such longing or desire.
  • noun Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.
  • noun Archaic Trust; confidence.
  • idiom (hope against hope) To hope with little reason or justification.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An inlet; a small bay; a haven.
  • To entertain or indulge an expectation of something desired.
  • To have confidence; trust with earnest expectation of good.
  • To desire with expectation; look forward to as desirable, with the expectation of obtaining: with a clause (with or without that) or, less commonly, a noun as object.
  • [Hope is also loosely used as synonymous with desire, long for, or wish.]
  • To expect; regard as likely to happen: not implying desire: with a clause as object.
  • To imagine; have an impression; think: with an effect of irony: as, I hope I know what I am talking about.
  • noun A hollow; a valley; especially, the upper end of a narrow mountain valley when it is nearly encircled by smooth green slopes: nearly equivalent to comb.
  • noun A mound; a hill. [Prov. Eng.] This word occurs in several place-names, as Easthope, Kirkhope, Stanhope, etc.
  • noun Expectation of something desired; desire accompanied by expectation.
  • noun Confidence in a future event, or in the future disposition or conduct of some person; trust, especially a high or holy trust.
  • noun That which gives hope; one who or that which furnishes ground of expectation or promise of desired good; promise.
  • noun The object of hope; the thing hoped for.
  • noun Expectation, without reference to desire; prognostication.
  • noun Synonyms Reliance, dependence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A sloping plain between mountain ridges.
  • noun Scot. A small bay; an inlet; a haven.
  • transitive verb To desire with expectation or with belief in the possibility or prospect of obtaining; to look forward to as a thing desirable, with the expectation of obtaining it; to cherish hopes of.
  • transitive verb obsolete To expect; to fear.
  • noun A desire of some good, accompanied with an expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable; an expectation of something which is thought to be desirable; confidence; pleasing expectancy.
  • noun One who, or that which, gives hope, furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good.
  • noun That which is hoped for; an object of hope.
  • intransitive verb To entertain or indulge hope; to cherish a desire of good, or of something welcome, with expectation of obtaining it or belief that it is obtainable; to expect; -- usually followed by for.
  • intransitive verb To place confidence; to trust with confident expectation of good; -- usually followed by in.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To want something to happen.
  • verb To be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes.
  • verb To expect and wish.
  • noun uncountable The belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen.
  • noun countable The actual thing wished for.
  • noun countable A person or thing that is a source of hope.
  • noun Christianity The virtuous desire for future good.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb expect and wish
  • noun one of the three Christian virtues
  • noun United States comedian (born in England) who appeared in films with Bing Crosby (1903-2003)
  • noun someone (or something) on which expectations are centered
  • noun grounds for feeling hopeful about the future
  • verb intend with some possibility of fulfilment
  • verb be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes
  • noun the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled
  • noun a specific instance of feeling hopeful

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hopen, from Old English hopian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hope, from Old English hopa ("hope, expectation"), from Proto-Germanic *hupōn (“hope”), from Proto-Indo-European *kēwp-, *kwēp- (“to smoke, boil”). Cognate with West Frisian hope ("hope"), Dutch hoop ("hope"), Middle High German hoffe ("hope"), Swedish hopp ("hope"). Extra-Germanic cognates include Latin cupio ("I desire, crave"), Albanian ngop ("I'm satisfied, sated") and gopë ("greedy, voracious").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hopen, from Old English hopian.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hope.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A dog in Turgenev's story Death.

    "...his dog, Hope, a gift from his cousin".

    November 16, 2007

  • An inlet, a valley, a hill. You choose this time.

    November 1, 2011