[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

expectation \ex`pecta"tion\n. l. expectio. exspectio: cf. f.
   expectation.
   1. the act or state of expecting or looking forward to an
      event as about to happen. "in expectation of a guest."
      --tennyson.
      1913 webster

            my soul, wait thou only upon god, for my expectation
            is from him.                          --ps. lxii. 5.
      1913 webster

   2. that which is expected or looked for.
      1913 webster

            why our great expectation should be called
            the seed of woman.                    --milton.
      1913 webster

   3. the prospect of the future; grounds upon which something
      excellent is expected to happen; prospect of anything good
      to come, esp. of property or rank.
      1913 webster

            his magnificent expectations made him, in the
            opinion of the world, the best match in europe.
                                                  --prescott.
      1913 webster

            by all men's eyes a youth of expectation. --otway.
      1913 webster

   4. the value of any chance as the prospect of prize or
      property which depends upon some contingent event.
      expectations are computed for or against the occurrence of
      the event.
      1913 webster

   5. med. the leaving of the disease principally to the
      efforts of nature to effect a cure.
      1913 webster

   expectation of life, the mean or average duration of the
      life individuals after any specified age.

   syn: anticipation; confidence; trust.
        1913 webster
see also:
expectation of life 

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

expectation
     n 1: belief about or mental picture of the future syn: outlook,
           prospect
     2: wishing with confidence of fulfillment syn: anticipation
     3: the feeling that something is about to happen
     4: the sum of the values of a random variable divided by the
        number of values syn: arithmetic mean, first moment,
        expected value
see also:
outlook prospect anticipation arithmetic mean first moment expected value 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

127 moby thesaurus words for "expectation":
   aftertime, afteryears, anticipation, apprehension,
   apprehensiveness, aptitude, aspiration, assumption, assurance,
   assured faith, awelessness, belief, by-and-by, calmness, chance,
   cheerful expectation, composure, confidence, conjecture,
   conviction, cool, coolness, course ahead, crystal ball, demand,
   dependence, design, desire, determinism, distant future,
   doomed hope, dueness, entitledness, entitlement, eventuality,
   expectancy, fair expectation, fair prospect, faith,
   favorable prospect, fervent hope, foresight, forward look, future,
   future tense, futurism, futurity, good chance, good cheer,
   good hope, great expectations, guess, hereafter, high hopes, hope,
   hopeful prognosis, hopefulness, hopes, hoping, hoping against hope,
   immediate future, immediate prospect, imminence, inexcitability,
   insistence, intention, justice, justifiable expectation, liability,
   likelihood, likeliness, meritedness, motive, near future,
   nodding acceptance, nonamazedness, nonamazement, nonastonishment,
   nonmarveling, nonwonder, nonwondering, notion, odds, offing,
   outlook, posteriority, prayerful hope, prediction, presumption,
   presumptive evidence, probabilism, probability, project, promise,
   prophecy, prospect, prospects, reasonable ground, reasonable hope,
   reliance, requirement, sanguine expectation, security, supposition,
   surmise, suspense, tendency, the future, the morrow,
   the sweet by-and-by, time ahead, time just ahead, time to come,
   tomorrow, trust, unamazedness, unamazement, unastonishment,
   unimpressibleness, unsurprise, unsurprisedness, verisimilitude,
   want, watchfulness, well-grounded hope, wish, wonderlessness

[4] : Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)

expectation. that which may be expected, although contingent. in the 
doctrine of life annuities, that share or number of the years of human life 
which a person of a given age may expect to live, upon an equality of 
chances. 
     2. in general, the heir apparent will be relieved from a contract made 
in relation to his expectancy. see post obit. 

Expectation >> E Words
Expectation, definition of term: Expectation
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