aspirant

[ uh-spahyuhr-uhnt, as-per-uhnt ]

noun

1. a person who aspires, as one who seeks or desires a career, advancement, status, etc.:

   The aspirants for foundation grants had yet to prove themselves.

adjective

1. aspiring or seeking to attain something important or of value.

aspirant

/ ˈæspɪrənt; əˈspaɪərənt /

noun

1. a person who aspires, as to a high position

adjective

1. aspiring or striving

Word History and Origins

Origin of aspirant¹

First recorded in 1730–40; from French or directly from Latin aspīrant- (stem of aspīrāns, present participle of aspīrāre ); aspire, -ant

Example Sentences

Not since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which by the consensus of historians and economists exacerbated the Great Depression, has a presidential aspirant proposed such high across-the-board tariffs on imports as Trump does.

From Los Angeles Times

No matter who the president or presidential aspirant, and no matter their politics, gender or race, American politics remains captured by the status quo, dominated by corporate interests.

From Salon

JD Vance, the Republican aspirant to the second-highest office in the land, has even invoked the Civil War as a morality play in which Southern slaveholders were the good guys and the North consisted of woke socialists.

From Salon

She took a shot for president in 2019 and had a bad primary run, but she's hardly the first presidential aspirant to flame out in their first run.

From Salon

One early line of attack is that “She actually did sleep her way into and upwards in California politics,” as former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly put it on Twitter, arguing that Harris was “an unqualified political aspirant getting ahead based on smthg other than merit” and that attacking her on these terms is “relevant, and fair game.”

From Slate

Related Words

• applicant
• candidate
• contestant