adjective
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having or expressing hope
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giving or inspiring hope; promising
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hopeful
Explanation
If you're hopeful about something, you're optimistic. You think it's going to turn out OK. Your team has been doing well in practice, so you're hopeful that you'll win the finals. Hopeful comes from the word hope, meaning "optimism about a future event," and the suffix -ful, meaning "full." So if you're hopeful, you're full of hope: you think something good is going to happen. You might be hopeful that you'll be offered a job after your great interview. Used as a noun, hopeful can describe a promising person who wants to succeed at a particular goal. The charismatic young politician is a hopeful for the next election.
Vocabulary lists containing hopeful
The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Emotions on Display
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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.
Roboticists are hopeful that AI can turn humanoids, once seen as a technological non-starter, into a viable industry.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
"The family are hopeful that the relevant authorities will do their upmost to get to the bottom of why our amazing son did what he did."
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Backhaus, by contrast, works it all out for her audience in terms that might be hopeful but lack theatrical cogency,
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
But, she added, "I feel more hopeful today about the progress and the opportunity in front of us than I have at any other moment."
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
My list of eighth-grade goals is pinned up on the bulletin board next to the bookshelves, so neat and hopeful.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
