aspiration
Other forms: aspirations
If your aspiration, or ambition, is to climb Mt. Everest someday, you better start training, because it’s a long, hard climb that requires a lot of preparation.
Aspiration means "inhalation" or "breathing." So how did it come to mean "ambition" or "the will to succeed"? The Latin gives us a clue: spirare ("to breathe") and spiritus ("spirit"). It was once believed that our breath was our soul or spirit, which might explain why we talk about "breathing life into" something, or coming up with energy and ideas to invigorate it. How else to breathe life into something than with ambition and drive, in other words, "spirit"?
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a cherished desire
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types:
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American Dream
the widespread aspiration of Americans to live better than their parents did
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emulation
ambition to equal or excel
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nationalism
the aspiration for national independence felt by people under foreign domination
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type of:
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desire
the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state
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American Dream
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a will to succeed
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type of:
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ambition, ambitiousness
a strong drive for success
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ambition, ambitiousness
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a manner of articulation involving an audible release of breath
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type of:
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articulation
the aspect of pronunciation that involves bringing articulatory organs together so as to shape the sounds of speech
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articulation
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the act of inhaling; the drawing in of air (or other gases) as in breathing
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synonyms:
breathing in, inhalation, inspiration, intake
/ˈæspəˌreɪʃən/
/æspɪˈreɪʃən/
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Vocabulary lists containing aspiration
After finding and returning the wallet of a social media billionaire, Benji and Felix must forge a friendship and spend a five-million-dollar cash reward before their time runs out. Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–14, Chapters 15–30, Chapters 31–44
Softball player Shenice tries to lead her team to the championships while investigating a family mystery.
In this book, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai collects the true stories of girls who have been displaced from their homelands.
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