solicitation
Americannoun
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solicitations
plural
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the act of soliciting.
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entreaty, urging, or importunity; a petition or request.
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enticement or allurement.
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Law.
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the crime of asking another to commit or to aid in a crime.
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the act of a prostitute soliciting in a public place.
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of solicitation
First recorded in 1485–95; from Latin sollicitātiōn-, stem of sollicitātiō, from sollicitāt(us) “agitated, worried” (past participle of sollicitāre “to excite, agitate, worry”; see solicit) + -iō -ion
Explanation
Solicitation is a request for something, usually money. If you buy a fancy new house, expect a phone call from the local charity with a solicitation for a donation. Solicitation comes from solicit, which means "to request," or "to entreat." So solicitation is the act of requesting. There are three kinds of solicitation. One is asking for money, like when someone goes door-to-door trying to collect money for a cause. In law, solicitation means encouraging someone to commit a crime. Solicitation can also mean making a plea to someone with power to grant a request or favor, like your solicitation to the traffic judge to dismiss your ticket.
Vocabulary lists containing solicitation
Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Date That Will Live In Infamy" (1941)
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The Awakening
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This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for January 2–8, 2021
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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.
See Examples For:
The agency will also issue an open solicitation for Moon Base technology demonstrations and begin pursuing a lunar communication and navigation relay constellation to improve communications between infrastructure on the Moon and Earth.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
“I shared my opinion that offering patients the opportunity to opt out once they have received a solicitation is too late because ‘you can’t un-creep people out,’” she added.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026
That action was in response to news that an internal investigation at Prudential had found “multiple inappropriate cases involving improper investment solicitation and the like by current and former employees” within its Japan operations.
From Barron's ● May 4, 2026
The supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to explore creating a “buffer zone” outside county offices, prohibiting certain types of “aggressive” solicitation toward people seeking food stamps and cash aid.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2025
They played a duet from “Zampa,” and at the earnest solicitation of everyone present followed it with the overture to “The Poet and the Peasant” Allez vous-enl Sapristir shrieked the parrot outside the door.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
The California lawsuit claims the text messages should be considered telephone solicitations.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
The Supreme Court has defined commercial speech as communication of the “terms of an actual or potential transaction” that has an “economic motivation”—for example, credit-card solicitations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
They also posted solicitations for the survey on X, aimed at researchers in these fields.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
New Jersey’s current round of solicitations closes on July 10.
From Seattle Times ● May 28, 2024
If so, we may give thanks, and, perhaps, venture to offer our solicitations in behalf of those as yet less favored by circumstances.
From Life Without and Life Within or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and poems. by Fuller, Margaret
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.
