EXPECTATION

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does expectation mean? 

• EXPECTATION (noun)
  The noun EXPECTATION has 4 senses:

1. belief about (or mental picture of) the future

2. anticipating with confidence of fulfillment

3. the feeling that something is about to happen

4. the sum of the values of a random variable divided by the number of values

  Familiarity information: EXPECTATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPECTATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Belief about (or mental picture of) the future

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

expectation; outlook; prospect

Hypernyms ("expectation" is a kind of...):

belief (any cognitive content held as true)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "expectation"):

hope; promise (grounds for feeling hopeful about the future)

foretaste (an early limited awareness of something yet to occur)

possibility (a future prospect or potential)

anticipation; expectancy (something expected (as on the basis of a norm))

apprehension; misgiving (painful expectation)

Derivation:

expect (consider reasonable or due)

expect (regard something as probable or likely)

expect (consider obligatory; request and expect)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Anticipating with confidence of fulfillment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

anticipation; expectation

Hypernyms ("expectation" is a kind of...):

hopefulness (full of hope)

Derivation:

expect (look forward to the birth of a child)

expect (look forward to the probable occurrence of)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The feeling that something is about to happen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("expectation" is a kind of...):

feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "expectation"):

anticipation; expectancy (an expectation)

Derivation:

expect (be pregnant with)

expect (regard something as probable or likely)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The sum of the values of a random variable divided by the number of values

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

arithmetic mean; expectation; expected value; first moment

Hypernyms ("expectation" is a kind of...):

mean; mean value (an average of n numbers computed by adding some function of the numbers and dividing by some function of n)

Domain category:

statistics (a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters)

 Context examples 

Emma knew that he had, on that occasion, found her much superior to his expectation.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

This is great news—Valentine’s Day is included in that period and will go far to meet your expectations. Matters of love are looking up!

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

If he has any expectations it is due to the fact that I have never wasted money, and I do not propose to begin to do so now.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sherlock Holmes was not disappointed in his expectations.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Their rank, fortune, rights, and expectations will always be different.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Elinor now found the difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event, however certain the mind may be told to consider it, and certainty itself.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Every hope, every expectation from him suspended, at least, and who could say how long?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I may have mentioned to you on a former occasion that I was in expectation of such an event.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

All his sanguine expectations, all his confidence had been justified.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

By straining to satisfy St. John till my sinews ache, I shall satisfy him—to the finest central point and farthest outward circle of his expectations.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)