aspiration
Americannoun
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aspirations
plural
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a strong desire, longing, or aim; ambition.
intellectual aspirations.
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a goal or objective that is strongly desired.
The presidency has been his aspiration since boyhood.
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the act of aspirating or breathing in.
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Phonetics.
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articulation accompanied by an audible puff of breath, as in the h -sound of how, or of when (hwen), or in the release of initial stops, as in the k -sound of key.
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the use of such a speech sound, or aspirate, in pronunciation.
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Medicine/Medical.
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the act of removing a fluid, as pus or serum, from a cavity of the body, by a hollow needle or trocar connected with a suction syringe.
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the act of inhaling fluid or a foreign body into the bronchi and lungs, often after vomiting.
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noun
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strong desire to achieve something, such as success
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the aim of such desire
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the act of breathing
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a breath
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phonetics
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the pronunciation of a stop with an audible and forceful release of breath
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the friction of the released breath
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an aspirated consonant
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removal of air or fluid from a body cavity by suction
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med
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the sucking of fluid or foreign matter into the air passages of the body
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the removal of air or fluid from the body by suction
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of aspiration
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin aspīrātiōn-, stem of aspīrātiō “a breathing upon”; see aspirate, -ion
Explanation
If your aspiration, or ambition, is to climb Mt. Everest someday, you better start training, because it’s a long, hard climb that requires a lot of preparation. Aspiration means "inhalation" or "breathing." So how did it come to mean "ambition" or "the will to succeed"? The Latin gives us a clue: spirare ("to breathe") and spiritus ("spirit"). It was once believed that our breath was our soul or spirit, which might explain why we talk about "breathing life into" something, or coming up with energy and ideas to invigorate it. How else to breathe life into something than with ambition and drive, in other words, "spirit"?
Vocabulary lists containing aspiration
This Week in Pop Culture : January 5 - 11, 2019
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Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
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Dwight D. Eisenhower, "The Military-Industrial Complex" (1961)
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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:
Martin recalled his first All-Ireland Fleadh in Listowel in 1973, but said the prospect of the festival coming north was not a realistic aspiration then.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
“A combination of touching aspiration and predictable demagogy implicit in an attitude of eternal intention.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
In “Remake,” McElwee laments the hope that making “Photographic Memory” gave him, an aspiration that he was depicting his son on the cusp of finding his way through the dark.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
Modernizing the grid isn’t a long-term aspiration that can wait.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
It seemed to her that in her external bearing she had succeeded only in deceiving Mrs. Shigemura; inwardly she knew her aspiration for worldly happiness was frighteningly irresistible.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
My wide-eyed aspirations need to be lowered significantly.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026
But the long hours, low wages and changing aspirations have made the profession less attractive to younger Kashmiris.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
And as he enters his senior season with professional football aspirations on the horizon, Iamaleava has learned to not let external voices interfere with his internal confidence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The Bromley and Chiselhurst MP argued that such bills represented the "dreams of this or that group and the proper aspirations of good minded-people" but were "not necessarily very well-thought through".
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
For every object of desire, another will soon come along to trump it, fueling aspirations even more.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
