expectation.

1. A belief or assumption about what is likely to happen or how something should be.

2. The average value of a random variable weighted by the probabilities of its possible values.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• meet expectations
• reasonable expectation

On the page

The result challenged their expectation of steady improvement.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular expectation; plural expectations. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.