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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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.
Just last week, two-time major champion Bryson DeChambeau, LIV’s most popular player, appeared on a podcast saying he was hopeful it could live forever.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
The Michigan hopeful put considerable distance between himself and Piker during the homestretch of the campaign.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2026
Sarah Robinson, from Northampton, felt hopeful when she was contacted by a man named Kherson H claiming to have her cat Cookie two weeks after she went missing.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
Yet all three men remain optimistic despite the odds, sure that Americans would rather feel hopeful than defeated, uplifted rather than downtrodden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
When she left, Dad came into my room, all hesitant and hopeful, and I ran over and hugged him.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
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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.
