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Glite Dictionary
🛡️ To prepare early 😊 To look forward 🔮 To expect 🌅 To foreshadow
to anticipate

to anticipate

124 3.6
To feel excited or nervous about something that will happen
  • verb
  • /ænˈtɪsɪˌpeɪt/
translation icon : esperar con ilusión
  • I enjoyed the previous specials, so I anticipate that this one will be equally good.
  • eagerly anticipate
  • anticipate an opportunity

I have been anticipating these coming weeks.

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Examples

  • At the time, I did not appreciate the significance or anticipate the challenges of teaching students so young.

    Academic text (2013)

  • From then on, her fear of everything changed, and she anticipated things in a different way.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • My mistake was that I tried to anticipate their needs and I anticipated them wrong.

  • Was it easier or I should say, is it easier or more difficult than you anticipated making movies?

  • This is the most highly anticipated release of the year.

    Honey Girls (2021)

  • The author makes the reader wait and anticipate what is going to happen.

    Academic text (2008)

  • But that week in the spring, I anxiously anticipate that week because it's really lovely.

  • We anticipate with pleasure tomorrow's tournament.

    47 Ronin (2013)

  • Good afternoon and welcome to what has become the most anticipated and unprecedented running of the Indianapolis 500.

    Turbo (2013)

  • I am eagerly anticipating the release of my favorite author's new book next month.

Synonyms

to expect
vsto anticipate
∞ 1.0

To think that something will happen

adds emotional response either eager excitement or anxious worry
to look forward to
vsto anticipate
867 2.4

To want something to happen and feel excited about it

also includes anxious or worried feelings as well as excitement
to look forward
vsto anticipate
825 1.4

Feel happy and excited about something that will happen

also covers fear or anxious feeling besides eager pleasure
to await
vsto anticipate
522 3.2

To wait for something with hope or excitement

is more about feeling excited or anxious about the future than passive waiting
to look to
vsto anticipate
214 3.2

To feel excited about something that will happen

also applies when the future causes nervousness as well as hope
to foresee
vsto anticipate
77 3.9

To know or expect something before it happens

focuses more on feelings about the future than on prediction or knowledge
to apprehend
vsto anticipate
  • Formal
2 7.0

To feel worried about something that may happen

also includes eager excitement as well as anxious feeling

Antonyms

dread
58 2.8

A strong feeling of fear or worry about something that may happen

How Eager

to long
114 4.5
to anticipate
124 3.6
to await
522 3.2

Surface Forms

anticipate infinitive
anticipated past
anticipated past participle
anticipating present participle
anticipates third person singular

Etymology

Anticipate comes from the Latin parts ante- 'before' and capere 'to take'. A helpful way to remember this use is to think of 'taking' your feeling ahead of time, which is why anticipate can mean to look forward to something with excitement or worry.