promising
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of promising
Explanation
Promising things are encouraging or hopeful — they give you every sign that they'll be successful in the future. A promising early spring hints that the rest of the season will be warm and full of flowers. A promising ballet dancer is young, but off to a very talented start. If you pick up a novel in a bookstore and the first few pages look promising, you'll probably buy it. Promising things are full of promise, "an indication that something will occur." The Latin root is promittere, "put forth," from pro-, "forward," and mittere, "send."
Vocabulary lists containing promising
Shine On, Luz Véliz!
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Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken?
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Honestly Elliott
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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.
By promising trillions in future profits from other, completely unproven, businesses.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 10, 2026
He wrote: “smh, promising things we can’t do is going to catch up with us one day.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
There are cheaper, non-tech names that look promising.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
Operators like SpaceX’s Starlink are filling the skies with them to offer space-based broadband and mobile-phone connections, aiming to get a piece of a promising market.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
There doesn’t seem to be water for anyone, and no one’s promising anything anymore.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
