anticipation

[an-tis-uh-pey-shuhn]

noun

1. the act of anticipating or the state of being anticipated.

2. realization in advance; foretaste.

3. expectation or hope.

4. previous notion; slight previous impression.

5. intuition, foreknowledge, or prescience.

6. Law.,  a premature withdrawal or assignment of money from a trust estate.

7. Music.,  a tone introduced in advance of its harmony so that it sounds against the preceding chord.

anticipation

/ ænˌtɪsɪˈpeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of anticipating; expectation, premonition, or foresight

2. the act of taking or dealing with funds before they are legally available or due

3. music an unstressed, usually short note introduced before a downbeat and harmonically related to the chord immediately following it Compare suspension

Other Word Forms

• nonanticipation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of anticipation¹

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”; anticipate ) + -iō -ion

Example Sentences

Longer-term Treasury yields and mortgage rates had been falling in anticipation of the Fed’s move Wednesday to cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point.

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The anticipation for the new version of the shooting game has given EA’s stock a nice lift over the past few months, though recent versions have been disappointing.

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In anticipation of the deployment, Pritzker warned that if the president’s efforts went unchecked, it would put the United States on a “the path to full-blown authoritarianism.”

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Although the gallery itself filled up quickly, growing warm and pupusa-scented, the energy was one of excitement and anticipation for people’s favorite authors and for a new beginning in the L.A. writers world.

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For most of Monday night, a crowd of 45,653 in South Philadelphia sat anxiously in anticipation, waiting for the dam to break in an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel.

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Related Words

• apprehension 
• hope 
• joy 
• prospect