expectation

noun

The act or state of expecting or looking forward to an event as about to happen.

That which is expected or looked for.

The prospect of the future; grounds upon which something excellent is expected to occur; prospect of anything good to come, especially of property or rank.

An implicit obligation or duty held by another in someone's view.

The value of any chance (as the prospect of prize or property) which depends upon some contingent event.

(statistics) The first moment; the expected value; the long-run average value of a variable over many independent repetitions of an experiment.

(statistics, colloquial) The arithmetic mean.

(medicine, rare) The leaving of a disease principally to the efforts of nature to effect a cure.

Roots

speciospect- · Latin · look, watch

Synonyms for expectation

anticipationn expectancyn hopefulnessn hopesv outlookn prospectn hopingv likelihoodn predictionn probabilityn beliefn presumptionn

Synonyms & related words for expectation

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Words related to expectation

Explore words related to expectation — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include expectational, expect, anticipative, anticipant, esperance, anticipate, hoped, overoptimism. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for expectation

Common synonyms for expectation include anticipation, expectancy, hopefulness, hopes, outlook, prospect, hoping, likelihood — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does expectation come from?

The word expectation breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root spect-, from Latin specio (“look, watch”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.