prompt

[ prompt ]
See synonyms for: promptpromptedprompterprompting on Thesaurus.com

adjective,prompt·er, prompt·est.
  1. done, performed, delivered, etc., at once or without delay: I emailed them asking about my package and they gave a prompt reply.

  2. ready in action; quick to act as occasion demands: They were trained to be prompt and competent for any emergency.

  1. quick or alert: You're too prompt to take offense.

  2. punctual: She's never prompt in arriving for work, yet she's always the first to leave at the end of the day.

verb (used with object)
  1. to move or induce to action: What prompted you to say that?

  2. to occasion or incite; inspire: What prompted his resignation?

  1. to assist (a person speaking) by suggesting something to be said: It's obvious that this witness has been prompted into giving false testimony.

  2. Theater. to supply (an actor, singer, etc.) from offstage with a missed cue or forgotten line: I focused on prompting our Cyrano, who had become strangely disoriented.

  3. Computers. (of a computer system) to send a message or symbol to (a user) requesting information or instructions, usually by displaying the message or symbol on a screen: Once the home page has loaded, the computer will prompt you to log in to your account.

  4. Computers, Digital Technology. to request particular output from (a machine learning algorithm) by means of instructions, questions, examples, context, or other input.

verb (used without object)
  1. Theater. to supply forgotten lines, lyrics, or the like to an actor, singer, etc.: I've got a one-line walk-on in the first scene, but for the rest of the play, I'll be prompting.

noun
  1. the act of prompting.

  2. something serving to suggest or remind: They send an email once a month, which is just the prompt I need to pay my bill on time.

  1. Commerce.

    • a limit of time given for payment for merchandise purchased, the limit being stated on a note of reminder (prompt note ).

    • the contract setting the time limit.

  2. Computers. a message or symbol from a computer system to a user, generally appearing on a display screen, requesting more information or indicating that the system is ready for user instructions: When the prompt appears, provide your access code.

  3. Computers, Digital Technology. a sequence of inputs, often containing instructions, questions, examples, or context, used to request particular output from a machine learning algorithm.

Idioms about prompt

  1. take a prompt, (in acting) to move or speak in response to a cue.

Origin of prompt

1
First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English prompte “ready, eager” (adjective), prompten (verb), both ultimately from Latin promptus “manifest, at hand, ready, quick, prepared,” adjective use of past participle of prōmere “to bring forth, deliver, set forth,” from prō- pro-1 + (e)mere “to buy, obtain, take”

word story For prompt

Prompt, adjective and verb, presents some oddities. One is that the first recorded date for the adjective is about 1425 and for the verb, 1428, making it impossible to determine which part of speech was the source for the other. A second oddity is that prompting, the gerund (verbal noun) logically derived from prompt and meaning “incitement or impulse to action,” is first recorded in 1402, a quarter of a century before the verb. A third difficulty is that the Medieval Latin verb promptāre, the possible source of the English word, does not exist per se but is inferred from its Medieval Latin derivative noun promptātor “one who incites or urges,” recorded in the mid-15th century, and the Old Italian verb prontare “to urge, press.”
The commercial sense of the noun prompt “a time limit given for payment for merchandise purchased" dates from the mid-18th century. The computer sense of the noun “a message or symbol on a display screen requesting more information from a user" dates from 1977.

Other words for prompt

Other words from prompt

  • prompt·ly, adverb
  • prompt·ness, noun
  • o·ver·prompt, adjective
  • qua·si-prompt, adjective
  • un·prompt, adjective

Words Nearby prompt

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use prompt in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for prompt

prompt

/ (prɒmpt) /


adjective
  1. performed or executed without delay

  2. quick or ready to act or respond

adverb
  1. informal punctually

verb
  1. (tr) to urge (someone to do something)

  2. to remind (an actor, singer, etc) of lines forgotten during a performance

  1. (tr) to refresh the memory of

  2. (tr) to give rise to by suggestion: his affairs will prompt discussion

noun
  1. commerce

    • the time limit allowed for payment of the debt incurred by purchasing goods or services on credit

    • the contract specifying this time limit

    • Also called: prompt note a memorandum sent to a purchaser to remind him of the time limit and the sum due

  2. the act of prompting

  1. anything that serves to remind

  2. an aid to the operator of a computer in the form of a question or statement that appears on the screen showing that the equipment is ready to proceed and indicating the options available

Origin of prompt

1
C15: from Latin promptus evident, from prōmere to produce, from pro- 1 + emere to buy

Derived forms of prompt

  • promptly, adverb
  • promptness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012