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.
Promising to free users from banking bureaucracy, the company -- which has 131 million clients in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia -- has become one of the most valuable firms in the region.
From Barron's • Mar. 11, 2026
Promising coaches are sometimes described as playing like Pep but this claim is often less true given that Guardiola's sides looks so different, so often.
From BBC • Feb. 19, 2026
Promising CEOs the moon hasn’t been a great way to get out-of-this-world results.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 17, 2026
And the latest development isn’t an isolated instance: Promising and hopeful research in dementia has been coming thick and fast of late.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 1, 2025
Promising, she wrote in response to the prints Mia sent.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
