bucket list

American

noun

Informal.

a list of things a person wants to achieve or experience, as before reaching a certain age or dying.

a bucket list for a terminally ill patient;
What’s on your summer bucket list?

bucket list British

noun

informal a list of experiences one wants to have before one dies

"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

Etymology

Origin of bucket list

First recorded in 2005–10; from the idiom kick the bucket “to die”

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:

bucket list

A lifelong aviation enthusiast, she said she had always wanted to visit the airport's air traffic control tower, and described the experience as one of the highlights of her bucket list.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

As a theme park journalist, it was the absolute summit of my professional bucket list — always close yet somehow out of reach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

WSJ: What’s still on your bucket list in terms of improving operations?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

"Australia is for many of us a bucket list destination," the UK travel industry body tells us.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

Getting straight A’s wasn’t on Qareeb’s bucket list, despite my parents’ best efforts.

From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023