aspiring

[ uh-spahyer-ing ]

adjective

1. eagerly or ambitiously aiming for a particular career, title, social status, etc.: a team of aspiring gold medalists.

   an aspiring composer;

   a team of aspiring gold medalists.

Other Words From

• as·pir·ing·ly adverb
• non·as·pir·ing adjective
• un·as·pir·ing adjective
• un·as·pir·ing·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of aspiring¹

First recorded in 1575–1595; aspire ( def ) + -ing ²( def )

Synonym Study

See ambitious.

Example Sentences

So LaPorta, a former pre-med student and onetime aspiring veterinarian at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale argued with Kelly.

From Washington Post

She said she met Kelly in 2015, when she was a 17-year-old aspiring R&B singer, and that she went to live with him in Chicago and Atlanta before graduating.

From Washington Post

Thirty percent were casual or aspiring sports bettors, saying they’d bet some in their state if it was legal but they weren’t going to bet illegally.

From Washington Post

Her mother, the former Mable Atlee, was an aspiring writer who headed west from Michigan in the early 1900s to teach.

From Washington Post

“They tried to make him look like the bad guy,” said Holley, who remembered her younger brother as a popular athlete who won awards in high school track and field and an aspiring model.

From Washington Post

That Huckabee is mentioned in the same sentence with other aspiring conservative governors, especially Bobby Jindal, is laughable.

From The Daily Beast

For many aspiring comedians, earning a place on SNL is their entire raison d'être.

From The Daily Beast

Not about encouraging aspiring butchers to live out their violent fantasies in Syria.

From The Daily Beast

Great for the aspiring Quentin Tarantino, or for the aspiring next Feiffer.

From The Daily Beast

This is not lost on their commander, Rama (Shani Klein), an aspiring military careerist who looks down on frivolity in wartime.

From The Daily Beast

The universal ignorance of the working class broke down the aspiring force of genius.

From Project Gutenberg

A woman with such capabilities would be wasted in the rle of a mere countess—but as the wife of an aspiring Liberal statesman!

From Project Gutenberg

Beauty was there; but it was the beauty of sadness; it was the crushed ruin of what might once have been bright and aspiring.

From Project Gutenberg

Throw your knowledge into compositions of a less startling, less aspiring character.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet, even against such accumulated disasters and disgraces, his vigorous and aspiring mind bore up.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• eager
• would-be