Other forms: awaiting, awaited, awaits
To await is the formal word for waiting for something. Await a decision, await further instructions, eagerly awaited.
It takes a direct object with no preposition — await your reply, not await for — which is the difference from wait, and it is the commonest error with the word. It belongs to correspondence and formal notices: we await your response. Awaited as an adjective is common in reviews: the long-awaited sequel. Note awaiting trial, which is standard legal usage; and that in speech people say wait for.
1verbawaitTo wait for something.
“They awaited a decision for about eleven months.”
synonyms: wait for, expect
await is a waiting.
Also accepted in games: wait for
Old Northern French awaitier meant to lie in wait for, from a Germanic root meaning to watch — the same root as watch and wake. Awaiting something was originally watching for it with intent.
fro-nor
awaitier — to lie in wait for, watch, observe
Middle English
awaiten
English, today
await
Built from
From Middle English awaiten, from fro-nor awaitier (“to lie in wait for, watch, observe”), originally especially with a hostile sense; itself from a- (“to”) + waitier (“to watch”). More at English wait.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA