adjective
-
having or expressing hope
-
giving or inspiring hope; promising
noun
Other Word Forms
- hopefulness noun
- unhopeful adjective
- unhopefully adverb
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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In the Mood? 100 Words to Describe Emotions
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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.
A second reason surrounds the cracks Citi now sees in what was a hopeful narrative of cyclicals and smaller companies starting to close the earnings gap with mega and large-cap tech leaders.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 14, 2026
Some residents are hopeful that a Tuesday evening town hall meeting will shed more light on the project, which they say was unexpected.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
Project lead Tracey Hamston said the births were the "news we were waiting for" and were hopeful more young pine martens, called kits, would be spotted soon.
From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026
“As the Vice President said this morning, he is hopeful for a positive conversation if the Iranians are willing to work in good faith.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
In that moment, when everything stood still and the outcome was unknown and all of us were hopeful, I got this huge surge of love for Dad and Twig and Dari.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
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.
