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 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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.
  • verb To want something to happen.
  • verb To be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes.
  • verb To expect and wish.

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

The word hope has been adopted by Ellie.

Help support Wordnik by adopting your own word here.

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