anticipation
Americannoun
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the act of anticipating or the state of being anticipated.
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realization in advance; foretaste.
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expectation or hope.
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previous notion; slight previous impression.
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intuition, foreknowledge, or prescience.
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Law. a premature withdrawal or assignment of money from a trust estate.
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Music. a tone introduced in advance of its harmony so that it sounds against the preceding chord.
noun
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the act of anticipating; expectation, premonition, or foresight
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the act of taking or dealing with funds before they are legally available or due
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music an unstressed, usually short note introduced before a downbeat and harmonically related to the chord immediately following it Compare suspension
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of anticipation
First recorded in 1540–50; from Middle French, from Latin anticipātiōn-, stem of anticipātiō “innate notion, preconception,” from anticipāt(us) “taken before, anticipated” (past participle of anticipāre “to take before”; see anticipate) + -iō -ion
Explanation
Anticipation is excitement, waiting eagerly for something you know is going to happen. Someone who has just proposed marriage waits in anticipation for a positive reply. Anticipation can be a nervous expectation, like when the birthday party waited in anticipation for Elmer to walk in so they could surprise him. However, anticipation can also mean to be like a Boy Scout: prepared. The weather center's anticipation of the storm prevented anyone from getting hurt. It can refer to something you'd like to prevent from happening, such as "the anticipation of a tax increase next year." Either way, it's a way of looking ahead, just like its Latin roots which mean "to take care of ahead of time."
Vocabulary lists containing anticipation
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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Olympics Vocabulary for Champions
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American Born Chinese
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The vibe was a sun-baked hybrid of Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca and a music festival—altitude, rivers of beer, and a crackling sense of anticipation at all times.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
The internet was slower and the information more avoidable; both waiting and anticipation were part of the standard framework of living.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Elvie said police had advised her family to pack belongings on Sunday morning in anticipation of the grass fire reaching their area.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
What wasn’t obvious, though, is that the price might already have risen in anticipation of that additional demand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
As the witch’s faceless head got closer, a flickering tongue pushed past the cracked mouth, licking the edges in anticipation as she closed in.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
It is always filtered through layers of worldviews, social practices, historical memories and anticipations of the future.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2024
And they do that through trying to anticipate how we might get hurt and reacting to those anticipations.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
There were bright songs about times and places, memories and anticipations, “Saturday afternoon” and “the future” — and about how the world of tomorrow might be a more just and peaceful place.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2021
In 1857, Osborne wrote that he had arrived in California “full of high hopes and bright anticipations of the future” only to find his dreams “have long since perished.”
From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014
But his exhortations toward national unity were less descriptions than anticipations, less reminders of the way we were than predictions of what we could become.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.