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prospective

UK/pɹəˈspɛktɪv/US/pɹəˈspɛktɪv/
adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,368 of 15,258leans written

Prospective means expected or likely in the future. A prospective buyer, prospective students, a prospective candidate.

It describes somebody who has not yet committed: a prospective buyer has looked but not bought. It is used constantly in property, recruitment and university admissions. Note the trap with perspective, which is a different word entirely and is often typed instead; and with prospectus, which is the document sent to prospective students or investors and comes from the same Latin looking-forward.

Definitions of prospective

  1. 1adjectiveprospectiveExpected or likely in the future.C1

    “The school holds an open day for prospective parents and their children.”

    synonyms: potential, likely

prospective is a quality of being expected.

Where it comes from

Latin prospectivus comes from prospicere, to look forward — pro plus specere, to look. Prospect, spectacle and inspect come from the same looking.

  1. Latin

    prospectivus

  2. Middle French

    prospectif

  3. English, today

    prospective

From Middle French prospectif, from Latin prospectivus. See more at English prospect.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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prospective in the wild

  • A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position.

    Candidate

  • The prospective short-circuit current of a predictable fault can be calculated for most situations.

    Electrical fault

  • In college athletics in the United States, recruiting is the process in which college coaches add prospective student athletes to their roster each off-season.

    College recruiting

  • Recruiting rules seek, as much as possible, to control intrusions into the lives of prospective student-athletes.

    College recruiting

  • The prospective study is important for research on the etiology of diseases and disorders.

    Prospective cohort study

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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.