promising
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word 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.
But after years of injuries, that was where the Canadian headed in a bid to rebuild what had been such a promising career.
From BBC • May 19, 2026
The deal is a promising start for Ford Energy, which the company introduced as a provider of battery energy storage systems—or BESS—for utility-scale, data center, and commercial and industrial customers in the U.S.
From Barron's • May 18, 2026
The track record isn’t promising, according to Karim Marshall, director of climate and energy policy at the Consumer Federation of America.
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim recently said it had promising results from one such drug.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 17, 2026
Some of the résumés look promising, so it shouldn’t be long before Dad hires someone, which will free me up to get back to my regular things, including finishing his boat.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
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.
