hopeful
[adjective]
Synonyms:
- optimistic, buoyant, confident, expectant, looking forward to, sanguine
- promising, auspicious, bright, encouraging, heartening, reassuring, rosy

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Antonyms: hopeless
Contrasted words: doubtful, insecure, pessimistic, uncertain, discouraged, disheartened, gloomy, glum, discouraging, disheartening, dismal, dreary
Related Words: anticipative, assured, satisfied, secure, cheerful, content, easy, undisturbed, fond, optimistic, Pollyannaish, rose-colored, sanguine, upbeat, advantageous, auspicious, propitious, bright, cheering, cheery, golden, halcyon, happy, sunny, budding, up-and-coming

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English Thesaurus: optimistic, hopeful, positive, upbeat, bullish, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. hope‧ful¹ /ˈhəʊpfəl $ ˈhoʊp-/ adjective
[Word Family: noun: hope, hopefulness ≠ hopelessness, hopeful; verb: hope; adverb: hopefully ≠ hopelessly; adjective: hopeful ≠ hopeless]

1. believing that what you hope for is likely to happen Synonym : optimistic
hopeful about
Everyone’s feeling pretty hopeful about the future.
hopeful (that)
I’m hopeful that we can find a solution.
be hopeful of (doing) something British English:
He is still hopeful of playing in Saturday’s game.

2. making you feel that what you hope for is likely to happen Synonym : promising:
The vote is a hopeful sign that attitudes in the church are changing.
Things might get better, but it doesn’t look very hopeful right now.
—hopefulness noun [uncountable]

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. hopeful² noun [countable] written
[Word Family: noun: hope, hopefulness ≠ hopelessness, hopeful; verb: hope; adverb: hopefully ≠ hopelessly; adjective: hopeful ≠ hopeless]
someone who is hoping to be successful, especially in acting, sports, politics etc:
Thousands of young hopefuls were auditioned for the role.
Republican presidential hopefuls

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

hopeful
adj.
I. thinking that sth good will happen
VERBS be, feel, seem, sound I feel quite hopeful that a peaceful solution will be found.
become, get Don't get too hopeful. We may not be able to go.
remain The police remained hopeful that she would be found alive.
ADV. extremely, very | almost | fairly, pretty, quite | eternally Only Janet, eternally hopeful, thought it was worth trying again.
PREP. about She was not very hopeful about her situation.
of The police are quite hopeful of catching the thieves.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

hopeful
II. making you think that sth good will happen
VERBS be, look, seem Things aren't looking very hopeful at the moment.
ADV. extremely, very | fairly, quite There are some fairly hopeful signs of recovery in the US market.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

optimistic believing that good things will happen:
I’m optimistic about our chances of winning.
an optimistic view of the future
hopeful believing that what you hope for will happen:
The test results made him feel more hopeful about his chances of recovery.
positive thinking about what is good in a situation, rather than what is bad:
Try to be more positive about your work.
She has a very positive attitude to life.
upbeat having a cheerful attitude and showing that you expect to succeed, or that a situation will get better, especially the economic or political situation:
The Prime Minister was upbeat, predicting that the economy would soon come out of recession.
an upbeat message about the party’s chances of winning the election
bullish feeling confident about the future – used especially when talking the economic situation, or a company’s chances of success:
He’s very bullish about the company’s prospects.
Stockmarket analysts expect the bullish trend to continue.
sanguine formal hopeful and not worried about what will happen in the future, especially when the situation seems difficult – a very formal use:
Koons himself somehow remains sanguine in the face of all the criticism.
Other commentators are less sanguine, and fear that the world economy is on the verge of recession.
rosy if the future or your life seems rosy, it seems good and you expect good things to happen:
The future looks rosy for the team.
Returning soldiers found life less rosy than they had hoped.
The price of oil keeps going up, and things look pretty rosy for the big oil companies.
look on the bright side to consider the good parts of a situation, which seems bad in many other ways – used especially when telling someone that they should do this:
Look on the bright side – it could have been a lot worse.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲