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expectation

UK/ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/US/ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,323 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: expectations

An expectation is what you believe is going to happen, or what you believe you will be given. The picture in your head before the thing arrives.

It takes of or a that-clause, and it is very often plural, since managing expectations means adjusting what people are hoping for before disappointing them. High expectations can be a burden and low ones a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is why teachers talk about them so much. Life expectancy is the statistical cousin. Living up to expectations and falling short of them are both fixed phrases.

Christen Dalsgaard · Public domain

Definitions of expectation

  1. 1nounexpectationA belief that something will happen or be provided.B2+

    “The results exceeded every expectation.”

Where it comes from

Expectation is a watching-out. Latin exspectō carries the ex of out and the spect of looking, so to expect a thing is to have your eye on the road for it.

  1. Latin

    exspectātiō

  2. Middle French

    expectation

  3. English, today

    expectation

Built from

  • exspectō · Latin — expect

From Middle French expectation, from Latin exspectātiō, from exspectō (“expect”). by surface analysis, en + expect + ation. Displaced native wēn.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Big Ideas, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 22 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

expectation in the wild

  • Adaptive expectations were instrumental in the consumption function and Phillips curve outlined by Milton Friedman.

    Adaptive expectations

  • Friedman suggests that workers form adaptive expectations of the inflation rate, the government can easily surprise them through unexpected monetary policy changes.

    Adaptive expectations

  • In the case of uncertainty, expectation is what is considered the most likely to happen.

    Expectation (philosophy)

  • An expectation, which is a belief that is centered on the future, may or may not be realistic.

    Expectation (philosophy)

  • In quantum field theory, the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of an operator is its average or expectation value in the vacuum.

    Vacuum expectation value

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the exspectō family

expect

expectation — used about once every 2,529 pages · #7,323 · point at the bar for the others

  • meet expectations