aspirant

noun as·pi·rant \ ˈas-p(ə-)rənt , ə-ˈspī-rənt \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of aspirant

: one who aspires

presidential aspirants

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Examples of aspirant in a Sentence

a bevy of ever-smiling aspirants for the Miss America title

Recent Examples of aspirant from the Web

The government should intervene, Mr. Li said, and keep unqualified aspirants off the road.

— trefor moss, WSJ, "China Auto Exec on Self-Driving Cars: ‘You Can’t Just Put Some Sensors on Top’," 29 Mar. 2018
While such political concerns aren't new to the Senate, aides and observers say that the tactics now being used by some of the presidential aspirants have crossed a line by attacking fellow Democrats for political gain.

— NBC News, "Vulnerable Senate Democrats feel the heat from 2020 hopefuls," 28 Mar. 2018
With the political season gearing up, the disparity between the high-profile gubernatorial contest, which features more than a dozen Republican candidates, and the lonely slog of the congressional aspirants couldn’t be starker.

— daniela altimari, courant.com, "Connecticut Republicans Struggle to Field Candidates for Congress," 16 Mar. 2018
Compared to other air taxis aspirants like Uber or Airbus which are still floating around concept art, Kitty Hawk is pretty far along with its functional full-size prototype.

— eric limer, Popular Mechanics, "Kitty Hawk's 'Air Taxi' Has Propellers Out the Wazoo," 13 Mar. 2018
Presidential aspirant McFarland and others realize the subtext to Booker's speech: A 2020 presidential run, even though the senator has recently brushed aside such speculation.

— john sharp, AL.com, "Senator Cory Booker returns to Alabama, but will 2020 be on his mind?," 9 Jan. 2018
Other 2016 aspirants have made more dramatic moves, like Jeb’s conversion to Catholicism.

— matthew cooper, Newsweek, "How the Presidential Candidates Found Their Faith," 2 Apr. 2015
Existing legal precedents regarding states’ power (or lack thereof) to restrict federal candidates pertain mainly to congressional candidates rather than presidential aspirants.

— matt ford, The New Republic, "Can States Ban Trump From the Ballot If He Doesn’t Release His Tax Returns?," 7 Mar. 2018
His frequent network and cable TV appearances offer him an outlet, but the State of the State is truly the last night for the potential 2020 Republican presidential aspirant to be center stage - the belle of the ball.

— andrew j. tobias, cleveland.com, "Talk it Out: What do you want to hear from John Kasich when he delivers his final State of the State address tonight?," 6 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'aspirant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.