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aspirant

[uh-spahyuh r-uh nt, as-per-uh nt]
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noun

a person who aspires, as one who seeks or desires a career, advancement, status, etc.: The aspirants for foundation grants had yet to prove themselves.

adjective

aspiring or yearning for something important or of value.

Origin of aspirant

1730–40; (< F) < Latin aspīrant- (stem of aspīrāns, present participle of aspīrāre). See aspire, -ant
Can be confusedaspirant aspirin
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for aspirant

contestant, applicant, candidate, competitor, hopeful, wannabe, postulant, striver

Examples from the Web for aspirant

Contemporary Examples of aspirant

Historical Examples of aspirant

  • How is the aspirant thirsting for knowledge to signify to them his wish for instruction?

    Clairvoyance

    Charles Webster Leadbeater

  • Many times the aspirant will remark, "I swear I didn't make it move!"

  • It was the aspirant he had drunk beer with weeks ago at Brocourt.

  • But this was merely the probation of the "novice," as the aspirant was termed.

    Kosciuszko

    Monica Mary Gardner

  • Yet this man is the only Thinker, the only Aspirant, amongst them all.

    Zanoni

    Edward Bulwer Lytton

British Dictionary definitions for aspirant

aspirant

noun

a person who aspires, as to a high position

adjective

aspiring or striving
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for aspirant
n.

"one who aspires," 1738, from French aspirant, from Latin aspirantem (nominative aspirans), present participle of aspirare (see aspire).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper