Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.
- v. Archaic To have confidence; trust.
- v. To look forward to with confidence or expectation: We hope that our children will be successful.
- v. To expect and desire. See Synonyms at expect.
- n. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.
- n. Something that is hoped for or desired: Success is our hope.
- n. One that is a source of or reason for hope: the team's only hope for victory.
- n. Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.
- n. Archaic Trust; confidence.
- idiom. hope against hope To hope with little reason or justification.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. Expectation of something desired; desire accompanied by expectation.
- n. Confidence in a future event, or in the future disposition or conduct of some person; trust, especially a high or holy trust.
- n. That which gives hope; one who or that which furnishes ground of expectation or promise of desired good; promise.
- n. The object of hope; the thing hoped for.
- n. Expectation, without reference to desire; prognostication.
- n. Synonyms Reliance, dependence.
- n. 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.
- n. A mound; a hill. [Prov. Eng.] This word occurs in several place-names, as Easthope, Kirkhope, Stanhope, etc.
- n. An inlet; a small bay; a haven.
Wiktionary
- v. To want something to happen.
- v. To be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes.
- v. To expect and wish.
- n. uncountable The belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen.
- n. countable The actual thing wished for.
- n. countable A person or thing that is a source of hope.
- n. Christianity The virtuous desire for future good.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A sloping plain between mountain ridges.
- n. Scot. A small bay; an inlet; a haven.
- n. 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.
- n. One who, or that which, gives hope, furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good.
- n. That which is hoped for; an object of hope.
- v. 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 . - v. To place confidence; to trust with confident expectation of good; -- usually followed by
in . - v. 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.
- v. obsolete To expect; to fear.
WordNet 3.0
- v. expect and wish
- n. one of the three Christian virtues
- n. United States comedian (born in England) who appeared in films with Bing Crosby (1903-2003)
- n. someone (or something) on which expectations are centered
- n. grounds for feeling hopeful about the future
- v. intend with some possibility of fulfilment
- v. be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes
- n. the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled
- n. a specific instance of feeling hopeful
Etymologies
- 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"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English hopen, from Old English hopian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Diary Entry by virginius "gin" arnold (about the author) yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Let us all take a deep breath and hope'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Maybe it became trendy to scoff at the use of the word \'hope\' but there is a time and place for its use. maybe this is a good time. ”
“And on being told that we felt no doubt, her diffident mind seemed comforted; "but," she added, "I want assurance: I hope; but I don't feel sure -- I do _hope_ in Christ.”
“I only ask you not to quite forget me, though I hope -- _I hope_ -- I shall never look upon your sweet face again.”
“Verbs that have no Participial Stem, express the Future Infinitive Active and Passive by fore ut or futūrum esse ut, with the Subjunctive; as, -- spērō fore ut tē paeniteat levitātis, _I hope you will repent of your fickleness_ (lit. _hope it will happen that you repent_); spērō futūrum esse ut hostēs arceantur, _I hope that the enemy will be kept off_.a. The Periphrastic Future Infinitive is often used, especially in the”
“I hope and _hope_ they'll keep on being sorry -- because they'll be that much gladder when I come back.”
“Oh, I hope, I _hope_ you will not waste two years more of your life, but if you do, if as you read these last lines that I shall ever write, the question is unsettled, I charge you by the memory of your sister, by the love you bear her not to wait another _moment_ -- not one.”
“MY DEAREST UNCLE, -- A few lines I must write to you to express to you my _very great_ delight at the certainty, God willing, of seeing you all _three_ next week, and to express a hope, and a _great hope_, that you will try and arrive a little earlier on Wednesday ....”
“I hope you will kindly let me have a few lines of _hope_ by the”
“hi Nanditha, hope u remmeber me..havent been to the blog sphere for a long time now..hope all is well with u...the cake is yummm..but one doubt, is it a must to have baking soda in cake recipes with bananas?”
“I hope," returned the captain of the Fire Brigade icily -- "I _hope_ that is not the spirit in which you propose to go through life.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hope’.
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Words Associated With Jesus
Words that indentify Jesus and His Salvation to those who seek Him.
hope, grace, love, faith, salvation, truth, eternity, heaven, god, holy spirit, bible, scripture and 191 more...
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FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)another, three, place, work, eyes, new, said, give, face, day, going, like and 388 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...deserve, deserve better, destiny, determination, determine, determine the wil..., dialogue, differentiation, difficult question, disappointments, diverse, diversity and 751 more...
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Girls Names
List of Girls names.
carla, jamie, ashley, kaitlyn, mae, lynn, nicole, sierra, mary, ann, manda, sara and 130 more...
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infin8y's list
words i love
paradox, relativity, perspective, truth, shiiin, effervescent, aureole, love, hope, crystalline, tranquillity, pneumonoultramicr...
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New Word Order
goal is governmen..., gravedigger, tragedy, hope, state department, united nations, disarmament, new world order, slavery, eugenics, unesco, illuminati and 53 more...
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Words for July
Words to keep in mind for July. The 1st is my birthday. I'll be 30 and pretty much starting my life over from scratch. Hopefully these words will help me on my way.
love, honor, trust, respect, understanding, forgiveness, compassion, empathy, thoughtful, dignity, reliance, hope and 12 more...
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Invincible space monkey
That which exist only in our minds
moral, honour, dignity, loyalty, virtue, justice, right, wrong, truth, ethics, property, value and 17 more...
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Nom de Guerre Finder
You've taken all the other quizzes--you've already used the name of your first pet and you're tired of having to use the name of the first street where you lived. Now it's time to find your excitin...
odyssey, dawn, desert, storm, noble, eagle, shield, freedom, enduring, swift, sharp, edge and 50 more...
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solutions
one word (preferably / not a must). terms that solved, help solve or theoretically will solve the world's problems (past, present, future).
these can be general, umbrella terms or...veganism, neurotechnology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, globalism, sustainability, laws, ecology, education, immunization, switchgrass, Esperanto and 72 more...
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Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue's Capitol
vestibule, foyer, mosaic, tessera, tower, elevator, observation deck, rotunda, guilloche, unicameral, legislature, supreme court and 81 more...
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Emotions
affection, longing, cheerfulness, pride, optimism, relief, success, suprise, irritation, rage, hope, love and 31 more...
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Words to live by
and my mantras
faith, God, Buddha, Muhammad, laughter, simplicity, hope, gratitude, Jesus, science, theology, agnosticism and 16 more...
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no little thing
it bothers me when i hear someone who have experienced something life changing use the phrase: now i appreciate the little things. I DON'T BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY LITTLE THINGS. everything is EXTRAOR...
letters, living, understand, narrow, behavior, personal, need, meant, untamed, world, soldier, 'cause and 241 more...
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Shadowkeir's list
This list, the one shown below this very message, is a collection of words that you cannot begin to fathom how much I adore. The list will also feature atithesis and contrasting words such as the t...
wishful, anticlimactic, forte, monchromatic, septic, wonderous, isoclinal, deformed, disintergrate, favourite, laughable, awe-inspiring and 250 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hope.

hernesheir An inlet, a valley, a hill. You choose this time. Nov 1, 2011
yarb A dog in Turgenev's story Death.
"...his dog, Hope, a gift from his cousin". Nov 16, 2007