How to Use anticipate in a Sentence

anticipate

verb
  • The organizers of the fair anticipate a large crowd.
  • The cost turned out to be higher than anticipated.
  • I did not anticipate having to pay for your ticket.
  • The author anticipated objections to his theory.
  • He eagerly anticipated her arrival.
  • They’re used to apps that anticipate their needs.
    — Cody Barbo, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Can see the field and anticipate throws.
    — Jourdan Rodrigue, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2026
  • This set of awards were some of the most anticipated of the night.
    — Lauren Ballantyne, Rolling Stone, 31 Mar. 2023
  • Full moons Here are the rest of the full moons to anticipate this year.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 11 Feb. 2025
  • Yash fans will have to wait a bit longer for their idol’s much anticipated next film.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 29 Apr. 2026
  • The phrase spread in a way no one anticipated.
    — Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Most teams anticipate the asking price to be steep.
    — Dianna Russini, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2025
  • There’s no way to anticipate whether the polls are going to be right or wrong ahead of the election.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2024
  • The severe threat has now come to an end, with no more storms anticipated for the rest of the night.
    — Tony Sadiku, CBS News, 12 June 2026
  • And markets have a reason to anticipate a short war.
    — Camila Domonoske, NPR, 27 Mar. 2026
  • When the event didn’t go as the dogs anticipated, their eyes lingered.
    — Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Oct. 2025
  • More casting is anticipated in due course along with launch date.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Was any of it at all anticipated?
    — Alex Ritman, Variety, 24 Apr. 2026
  • But getting the feelings out there will give you both a chance to anticipate them in your planning.
    — Carolyn Hax, The Seattle Times, 10 July 2018
  • But what Dwight did not anticipate was the knife stuck in his back from a member of his own pre-merge tribe.
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 3 Nov. 2022
  • This was the kind of moment J had been anticipating for a while.
    — Karen Brown, NPR, 17 Apr. 2026
  • But the player was about to ascend in ways that Meier did not anticipate.
    — Neima Jahromi, The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2021
  • Lynch learned fast to anticipate passes or handoffs and take the best route to the football.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Jan. 2023
  • People were anticipating a new song in the mix at the Sphere show.
    — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 8 May 2026
  • The aim is to be proactive — to anticipate what moves the enemy might make.
    — Ken Silverstein, Forbes, 8 June 2021
  • There was something to anticipate and to talk about besides all that these times were taking away from us.
    — Ian McNulty, NOLA.com, 18 Jan. 2021
  • The lovers of this dish anticipate the spring when the ram’s testicles are at their biggest.
    — Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 13 June 2019
  • The latest big miss has been its failure to anticipate this year’s surge in consumer prices.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 28 July 2021
  • Real estate agents anticipate house hunters will ramp up their efforts over the next few months to buy a home.
    — Khristopher J. Brooks, CBS News, 29 Mar. 2023
  • And why didn't Apple anticipate these types of abuse would happen in the first place?
    — Wired Staff, Wired, 18 Feb. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'anticipate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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