Synonyms of hopefuls

hopefuls

noun

plural of hopeful

as in candidates

one who seeks an office, honor, position, or award

the three mayoral hopefuls are going to debate on local TV

Synonyms & Similar Words

• candidates
• contenders
• applicants
• aspirants
• seekers
• nominees
• campaigners
• prospects
• competitors
• contestants
• expectants
• entrants
• entries
• qualifiers
• favorites
• appliers
• claimants
• pretenders
• spoilers
• favorite sons
• crown princes
• stalking horses
• running mates
• dark horses

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• incumbents
• officeholders
• inductees
• awardees
• dropouts
• honorees
• noncandidates

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of hopefuls

But a crop of Senate candidates in more conservative-leaning states like Iowa, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, and Democratic hopefuls in newly competitive House districts, have surged in polls and fundraising. — Stephen Fowler, NPR, 20 Oct. 2026

Folger is one of thousands of hopefuls aiming to beat the odds as Hollywood implodes. — Meredith Maran, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026

The Democratic Party’s shake-up of its calendar for early-state primaries has added to the intrigue as potential 2028 hopefuls fan out across the country to boost midterm candidates. — Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2026

While third-party hopefuls appreciate his support, their goals are different. — semafor.com, 14 Oct. 2026

The new Wolf Entertainment hopefuls are among the crop of projects NBC has in the works as part of the 2026-27 development cycle. — Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 12 Oct. 2026

At this stage, polls suggest that Mélenchon and center-right candidate Edouard Philippe are behind far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, but ahead of a range of other hopefuls. — ABC News, 11 Oct. 2026

From the interstate to the eastern suburbs, Citrus Heights’ city council hopefuls are focused on Sunrise Mall. — Sacbee.com, 6 Oct. 2026

Four other presidential hopefuls trail behind Lula and the younger Bolsanaro in the polls. — Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 4 Oct. 2026

Video

Hopefully

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Ask the Editor, I'm Peter Sokolowski,Editor at Large at Merriam-Webster.
 
Everybody has a pet peeve about English. One we sometimes hear about is the use of the word hopefully to mean, I hope, as in, "Hopefully, it won't rain tomorrow."
 
This use of hopefully seems to have started in the U.S. rather than Britain, and had a kind of explosion of popularity around 1960. The surge in popularity brought about a surge of criticism. This usage really got on some people's nerves.
 
The peeve argument usually goes like this:
Since the word hopefully originally meant in a hopeful manner, it can't possibly also mean, I hope.
 
Those who have this particular peeve believe that it's completely illogical or nonsensical to use the word this way. Some commentators have even warned that the word's original meaning, in a hopeful manner, would somehow be lost as the newer sense spread. But that makes no sense.
 
Plenty of words have multiple senses and we all use them without difficulty. Nobody has forgotten what a cookie or a mouse is just because we also use those words with new meanings today.
 
The fact is, some adverbs can be used in two different ways.
 
In, "You can speak frankly with us," frankly modifies a single word. Here it would be called an adverb of manner. But in, "Frankly, I think your essay needs more work," it modifies a whole sentence, and would be called a sentence adverb or a disjunct. Disjuncts are an efficient way to comment directly on the content of a sentence. A few other sentence adverbs that function in a similar way are interestingly, clearly, luckily, and unfortunately.
 
The fact is, the language changes just fast enough for us to notice, and when people notice changes, there's often a harsh reaction. The main complaint about the sentence adverb hopefully was that it was new, but it's not new anymore.
 
Look for more segments of Ask the Editor here at merriam-webster.com.