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AH020387 Posted 16 years ago
Vocabulary

Anticipate

I was taught that 'anticipate' means 'to know something will happen', and 'expect' means 'to hope something will happen', but recently I heard the word anticipate being used in the sense of hoping something will happen.

So which is which?
  

Top answer

They really could be used interchangably, but from a more formal standpoint; to anticipate is to realize or recognize that something is to occur while expecting is to know something is to occur. They are pretty synonymous in nature with a subtle difference, but expecting is more concrete knowledge that something will happen in the future. Hope this helps!

— DJDave

  • They really could be used interchangably, but from a more formal standpoint; to anticipate is to realize or recognize that something is to occur while expecting is to know something is to occur.
  • They are pretty synonymous in nature with a subtle difference, but expecting is more concrete knowledge that something will happen in the future.
  • Hope this helps!
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4 Answers
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They really could be used interchangably, but from a more formal standpoint; to anticipate is to realize or recognize that something is to occur while expecting is to know something is to occur. They are pretty synonymous in nature with a subtle difference, but expecting is more concrete knowledge that something will happen in the future. Hope this helps!
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Hi. I don't know about "anticipate", but "expect" doesn't really mean "hope". When you expect something to happen, you have some valid reason to think that it will happen. For example, "She's expecting a baby" implies that she is pregnant.
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